Life Before Death: Severus Snape
by atom-rocks
Summary: This is a story about the history of Severus Snape. Severus is enrolled at Hogwarts, where he gets away from his broken home and just trys to make friends. But trouble just seems to find him everywhere. Rated M15 for language & later sex scenes.
1. Samuel Snape

**LIFE BEFORE DEATH: SEVERUS SNAPE**

**A/N**: I haven't written anything for FF for a long time, and I fear that I've forgotten how. So this is a mini-series just to get me back into the groove. Snape is one of my favourite characters, and I find his point of view fascinating and often wonder how he got the way he got. In the fifth book, where Harry gets into his pensive and into his mind, that sheds some light on what made him who he is. But there are still some big gaping holes. So this is my take on Severus Snape's life. The first few chapters are more or less an intro to Snape's parents. R&R!

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**CHAPTER ONE: Samuel Snape.**

Severus sat in a compartment on the train, alone as usual. He was about to start at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and he was glad. It would give him a chance to get away from his violent home, away from his mother's crying and his father's shouting. For ten years he had been forced to put up with beatings and verbal abuse from his father and now he was glad that he could get away. He didn't know what to expect from Hogwarts: he hadn't heard much about it from his parents. His mother had gone to a school overseas and his father had been expelled from Hogwarts in his third year. Severus's mother had told him that he had been expelled due to attempted murder, and had refused to say much more then that on the subject.

Severus's father had been a violent man. In his first three years at Hogwarts he had been honourable and intelligent, taking home decent grades. He had come from a wizarding home but knew not much about his past due to an accident at the age of eight. There had been a fire in the Snape house and he had lost his memory. Snape's father, Samuel, had two years to learn as much about the wizarding world as he could. On his tenth birthday a letter was sent to him declaring that he had been accepted into Hogwarts. He was sorted into Slytherin due to his extensive family tree. Since he had minimal knowledge of the wizarding world he was treated as a muggleborn and bullied. In his third year he got into a serious fight with one Darcious Malfoy and their brawl got out of control. Darcious fell down a flight of stairs and hit his head. He claimed that Samuel had pushed him from behind.

Darcious's father had come to the school and demanded that Samuel be expelled. The headmaster of the school at that time had no choice but to expel Samuel from Hogwarts. His wand was snapped and he had to return home. His parents disowned him and he had to live life on the streets, that is, until one day when he wanted revenge. He tracked down Darcious Malfoy and in the night when Darcious, his wife Katherine and their newborn Lucius were all asleep, Samuel snuck into their house, destroyed Darcious's wand and killed him.

Samuel was never caught. Less then a week after Darcious's murder he met a woman named Antoinette and she took him in. After Severus was born the two married. But Samuel was not his once sane self, he hated living and despised Antoinette because she had received a proper education. He started beating her and once Severus was four years old, he started beating him too. Severus grew up to be afraid of his own father.

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**There, chapter one down. Chapter two coming soon. Now that you've read, please review.**


	2. Antionette Purtwin'

**CHAPTER TWO: ANTOINETTE PURTWIN'**

**A/N**: I'm writing short chapters at the moment, but once I get into it they'll be a lot longer. This chapter explains Snape's mother, who might make an appearance later, I haven't decided yet but even if she doesn't she'll still be heard of. R&R!

**CHAPTER TWO:** Antoinette Purtwin'

In her first year of school at Beauxbatons she was the top student. In her last year at school she decided to transfer to Britain for more of a learning experience. Instead of attending a school over there she was home tutored. When she graduated she had become so used to Britain that she decided not to return to France. When looking for work she met a man on the streets named Samuel Snape and her heart went out to him. She invited him in to her home and took care of him.

She and Samuel got together but Antoinette never really wanted him. When their first child Severus was born, she decided to do the traditional thing and she married Samuel. That was her ticket to hell. Samuel became cocky that she would be around forever because of the kid that he had given her so he started to beat her. Samuel made Antoinette's life a living hell. He was nice to her on a **VERY** rare occasion. On one of those rare occasions he confessed to her that he'd been expelled from Hogwarts because of an incident with a fellow student called Darcious, and that he had killed him. Antoinette didn't believe for a second that it had been an accident what Samuel had done, even though it had.

As Severus grew up Samuel started to beat him as well. Antoinette would beg for hours for Samuel to leave "Sev," alone and just beat her instead. If he was in a good mood he would do just that. Severus started growing up to be afraid of his own father. Samuel's biggest fear was that Severus would go to Hogwarts and when he came back he'd be strong enough to kill him and save Antoinette.

Antoinette tried on several occasions to find out what was wrong with Samuel but all she ever found out was that he was bitter and twisted because he never had an education.

#

When the woman with the goodies trolley came and asked Severus if he wanted something to eat, he was forced to say no. Of course his parents hadn't given him any money for snacks. It would have made his father beat him if he'd asked for any. Severus sat holding his knees and looking out the window. He was glad to be away from home. He was a bit worried about what his father would do to his mother, but he'd always been. At that moment the door to Severus's compartment slid open and in walked someone. It was a tall boy with messy black hair and a pair of glasses. He sat down next to Severus.

"Hi," he said, extending his hand, "James Potter."

"Severus Snape," he said, extending his own.

James opened his bag and took out some sweets, offering some to Severus. Severus took some with a polite thanks, wondering if James would be his first friend. The two of them sat in silence for a few minutes, then James asked Severus a question.

"Pureblood or muggleborn?" he asked.

It took Severus a minute to understand what he meant, then he replied "Pureblood."

"Same here," said James, "I've heard that some of the houses are really unfair towards all the muggleborn students, like Slytherin. My cousin told me that Slytherins are all racists towards muggleborns and that if I had any sense in me I'd stay away from them. I don't know how my family would react if I was sorted into Slytherin, but I don't think I will. For four generations my family have all been in Gryffindor. What house do you think you'll be in?"

Severus chose his words carefully so as not to lose James as a friend before even gaining him, "My mum went to school in France and my dad was expelled from Hogwarts around the time he was 13, but before that he was in Slytherin and so were the rest of my family."

James gave him a strange look, "Why was he expelled?"

Severus didn't want to tell James, but he wanted to gain his trust, "Attempted murder my mum said."

James's jaw dropped, "Then shouldn't he have been sent to Azkaban or something? I mean it would mean he's a criminal if he tried to kill someone. Is he in Azkaban?"

Severus shook his head, "Don't really know what happened to be honest. My mum said she found him when he was living in the streets and took him in."

James was still looking at Severus in a funny way, "Well ok."

For the next few minutes the trip passed in silence. When James decided to talk again, it was about Quidditch. He bragged to Severus that he was a champion Seeker and Severus told him that he'd never played Quidditch because he lived in a muggle area. James told him all about it and Severus memorised the rules from listening to him talk. Finally a conductor came in and told them that they should start changing because they were due to arrive at the castle soon. James and Severus changed into their robes and then headed down to the main area of the train.

They heard a man's voice calling the first years, so James and Severus exited the train. The boys were told to climb into boats with all the other first years so James and Severus got their own boat. Seconds later they were joined by two other boys. One was also tall with messy black hair and the other was tall with neatly combed blonde hair. The boy with blonde hair extended his hand to Severus.

"Lucius Malfoy," he said.

Severus shook it and introduced himself, his mind elsewhere. _Malfoy?_ Something about that name sounded familiar to Severus, where had he heard the name Malfoy. The other boy who had just joined them also introduced himself to Severus, and his name was Sirius Black. He also introduced himself to James and Lucius. There was no conversation for a minute, then…

"Anyone like Quidditch?" asked Sirius.

**Another short chapter, but thankfully it was longer then the first one. I'll have Chapter 3 up soon. Now that you've read, please review!**


	3. The Sorting

**CHAPTER THREE – THE SORTING.**  
  
**A/N:** Time for Chapter 3! This chapter has a bit of swearing, so it's rated PG13 or whatever. I forgot to put the disclaimer in for the last two chapters, so I'm doing it once then I ain't going to do it again.  
  
**Disclaimer**: All characters, situations, and references in this tale are those of JK Rowling, I don't own them and I don't want too, too...much...PRESSURE!!!  
  
**Reviewers**:  
  
**Biene** – Thank you for being my first reviewer! I appreciate all the nice things and I can assure you that Lucius will find out about what Severus's father did, but when he will find out and how he will react I have not decided. Thanks for reviewing!  
  
And now...(drum roll)  
  
**CHAPTER THREE** – The Sorting.  
  
James and Sirius erupted into conversation about Quidditch and how magnificent a sport it is. Severus was half listening. He had other thoughts on his mind at the moment. He wondered if perhaps he wouldn't be sorted into Slytherin. He knew his father wanted him in Slytherin but he didn't care. His father would beat him up no matter what house he was sorted in. James had said that he was going to be in Gryffindor, he wondered what houses Lucius and Sirius would be in.  
  
"I know I'll be in Slytherin," said Sirius, "Everyone in my family has been sorted into Slytherin, including my older brother. I have to be honest, I don't exactly like my family. They've all got their heads screwed on backwards. A bunch of muggleborn bashers."  
  
Lucius snorted, as if he thought Sirius's relations were on the ball. Sirius ignored him.  
  
"I know for a fact I will be sorted into Slytherin," said Lucius, "I'm glad about that. Glad I won't have to put up with pathetic mudbloods and muggle- lovers."  
  
James glared at Lucius, "Did you just say what I think you said?"  
  
Sirius got to his feet, which caused the boat to rock. "Listen Malfoy, you don't ever use that M word again. There is no mud in the blood of muggleborns."  
  
Lucius sneered at Sirius, "Says who?"  
  
Sirius glared at him, "Me," he said simply.  
  
Sirius sat back down again and the rest of the trip was in silence. Severus didn't want to make enemies with James or Sirius, but deep down inside he agreed with what Lucius had said. He despised mudbloods, but he didn't want to. Years of upbringing with Samuel Snape made him think that mudbloods must have something wrong with them. He shook his head, he hated his father for putting these thoughts in his head.  
  
The boats arrived at the school and the foursome stood up and exited. The man who had led them there, Professor Carrick, lined them up and walked them along to a solid door. The man knocked on it three times and then stood back as it opened. Professor McGonagall stood on the other side.  
  
"Professor McGonagall, the first years," said Carrick.  
  
Professor McGonagall nodded, and then led them through to the hall.  
  
"I," she said, "am Professor Minerva McGonagall, the Transfiguration teacher and Gryffindor head of house. You are now about to be sorted into your house, I will lead you through to the hall, please stay in your line."  
  
Professor McGonagall led the students through to the hall for what Severus presumed would be the sorting. He had heard that to be sorted you had to try on a hat that'd read your mind. It would place you in which house it thought you would do well in. Severus now wanted to be in Slytherin house. He had a deep interest in the dark arts and wanted to take that further. The hall went silent as the first years entered. Professor McGonagall went to the end and read out a name.  
  
"Atkins, Melissa."  
  
Lucius, who was behind Severus, muttered something that he couldn't hear but he picked up the words "stupid," and "mudblood." Melissa Atkins was sorted into Ravenclaw. Professor McGonagall read out the names of two more students until she came to "Black, Sirius." All of the hall watched as Sirius went up to the hat and tried it on. Sirius had told Severus that he was bound for Slytherin.  
  
"_GRYFFINDOR_!" shouted the hat.  
  
Severus was stunned. Sirius had told him that all of his family had been in Slytherin. Sirius was looking both stunned and pleased with himself, he went over to take a seat at the table for Gryffindor. A little later the hat called out "Malfoy, Lucius," and he went up to put it on. The hat hadn't even touched his head when it declared him a Slytherin. A few names later "Potter, James," was sorted into Gryffindor, and he went to sit next to Sirius. Finally...  
  
"Snape, Severus,"  
  
Severus went forward and put the hat on his head. The hat seemed to be thinking.  
  
"Tough decision here. Seems you've had a tough upbringing. Oh yes I remember Samuel Snape, seems he went a bad mad in his old age. Well you're a lot like him Severus, I hope you don't make the same mistake he made. All the same, you belong in the same house as he does."  
  
Severus heard the hat shout "_SLYTHERIN_," to the hall. He got up and went to sit at the table for Slytherin. Lucius invited him to sit next to him. Severus was still puzzled as to where he'd heard the name Malfoy before. Maybe his mother or father had mentioned someone named Malfoy. He'd have to write home and see sometime. Lucius was talking to someone else who had been sorted into Slytherin, a kid who Lucius referred to only with his last name – Mcnair.  
  
#  
  
**A/N:** I know this chapter was longer, but it's still not as long as I would've liked it to have been. Well I'll have the next chapter up soon. Now you're read, please review. 


	4. The Encounter

**CHAPTER FOUR – The Potter/Black Encounter.**  
  
Severus decided to write a letter to his mother later on that evening. He wanted her to know he had arrived safe and sound, although he knew that she would fret no matter what. Nothing would bring down her maternal instincts, no matter what. Lucius and Mcnair were talking to each other and didn't seem to be paying attention to him. He snuck out of his seat and into the hall. He would have to get to his trunk to get a quill and parchment. But he didn't know the location of his trunk. He had been told to leave it on the train and that it would be brought up to his room after the sorting. Well, he didn't know where that was either.  
  
He decided to see if he could find some parchment in a classroom or something. He opened the door to a classroom and glanced inside. He couldn't have asked for a better place to write his letter. He seemed to have walked into a mini-library, and there was a stack of parchment next to an ink bottle with a dozen quills lying across a desk. In front of the desk there was a nice and comfortable chair, and there was even an owl in a cage, looking down on him. Sev grinned to himself at his luck.  
  
He sat down in the chair and grabbed a quill. He dipped the quill in the ink and started to write the letter.  
  
_Dear Mother, _

_I have just arrived at Hogwarts, and so far things have been going great. Earlier this evening I was sorted into Slytherin, and I've already made a friend in the name of Lucius Malfoy. I don't know much about him, but he seems alright. This is a short letter because there is not much that I have to write about. Write back a.s.a.p. so that know you're ok. _

_With much love, Severus._  
  
Seems alright, he thought to himself. He folded up his letter and stored it in an envelope. He crossed the room to the owl and let it out of it's cage. He tied the letter to the owl and opened a window. The owl knew what to do, it flew out and was soon out of sight. Severus closed the window and exited the room to head back to the Great Hall. He was, and forever would be, oblivious to the fact that he had just used the Room of Requirement.  
  
When Severus got back to the Great Hall the students were standing up and leaving for their common rooms. Severus spotted Lucius and McNair, along with three others, and wormed his way into their crowd. A prefect led them to the Slytherin common room and told them that the password was Obliviate. Severus walked up the stairs to his common room and settled into a bed. He drifted off wondering about classes the next day.  
  
#  
  
Severus rose the next morning full of excitement about classes. He went down to the Great Hall for breakfast and ran into someone. It was Sirius Black, newly sorted Gryffindor. Severus had been on the same boat as him on the trip over to the castle via the water. Sirius forced a grin at him and kept walking. Severus knew not what to think of Sirius, he wondered if the two of them could be friends. Probably not, since Severus's first friend was no fan of Sirius.  
  
Severus quickly forgot about Sirius as he took his seat at the Slytherin table. He glanced at a timetable and realised that he had Transfigurations up first with Professor McGonagall. After that he would have Charms, Defence Against The Dark Arts and double Potions. Potions was something that he was good at. His mother had been the top of her grade at whatever school she had gone to, and since he was too young to have a wand, there was little she could teach him. But Potions was one thing that did not require a wand, and Severus had been learning it since he was an infant.  
  
After breakfast he headed with Lucius and Mcnair to Transfigurations. Severus realised he'd never talked to Mcnair ever. While waiting outside the Transfigurations classroom Mcnair and Severus introduced themselves to each other properly. Mcnair was very similar to Lucius, he had the same views on muggleborns as him and seemed to come from a rich family as well. Severus was grateful Mcnair didn't ask him about his family, he didn't want to go into details of his child-life.  
  
Professor McGonagall turned up and led them all into the classroom. Severus took a seat in the corner next to Mcnair. Mcnair turned to Lucius and the two of them started chatting. Soon the whole class was talking to one another about casual stuff, but Professor McGonagall did not tell them to be quiet. She made a crackling sound with her wand in the air.  
  
"Never," she said sternly, "Do I want to hear that volume of noise in my classroom. You are in school now, show some respect."  
  
Half the class had jumped out of their skin at the sound. No-one was stupid enough to answer back at McGonagall. She took the role and then walked them through Transfiguration, telling them all about it. She demonstrated transfiguration by transforming her desk into a pig and then transforming it back. When she was finished James Potter put up his hand.  
  
"Is human transfiguration possible?" he asked eagerly.  
  
Professor McGonagall waved her wand and there was a pig sitting in James's seat. The class cracked up. McGonagall transformed him back.  
  
"There are too kinds of human transfiguration," she said, "One is of course done with a wand, as I have just shown you. The other kind of human transfiguration is to turn into an animal and then to turn back. I must warn you however that the risks of this are more then you can ever imagine. Transforming into an animal is called Anamagi and anyone who wishes to try it must be of age and under supervision from the Ministry Of Magic. In the last few centuries only about three or four people have tried it, including myself for one."  
  
With that Professor McGonagall disappeared and in her place there was a black cat. All of the class gasped. Severus was rather interested, despite himself. McGonagall changed back into her normal self.  
  
"However you will not learn about Anamagi until your third year," she told the class, "Now take out your books and we shall proceed with the lesson."  
  
#  
  
When lessons were over Severus, Lucius and Mcnair all had a pile of homework. After dinner the three of them were heading back to their common room to get started on it when Lucius ran into someone. It was none other then Sirius Black. Him and James Potter had just come from detention with the Potions Master, Professor Taylor. Lucius sneered at them.  
  
"Mugglelovers can never stay out of trouble can they?"  
  
Mcnair laughed and Severus, despite himself, followed suit. His friendship with Potter & Black had just flushed itself down the drain.  
  
"You Slytherins are always the teacher's pets aren't you?" replied Sirius, "Your parents should really teach you the difference between respect and sucking-up."  
  
Sirius seemed to have touched a nerve. Lucius took out his wand and James had to restrain Sirius. James glared at Lucius.  
  
"Don't worry about it Sirius," said James, "We know we could beat those loser Slytherins any day of the week."  
  
"I don't think so," sneered Lucius, "Hasn't centuries of evidence proven that Slytherins were the best duellers there ever was?"  
  
James snorted, "Why don't you prove it then. We'll have a proper wizard's duel sometime, just me, you, Sirius and your second!"  
  
"How about tonight, is that ok with you Potter?" Lucius half-asked, half- sneered.  
  
"Perfect," said Sirius, "Who do you want to be your second Lucius?"  
  
Lucius glanced at Severus and Mcnair, deciding which one of them was smarter. He thought for a few seconds.  
  
"We'll have the wizarding duel tonight on the Quidditch pitch," said Lucius, "Me and you Black, and Severus here will be my second!"

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**A/N:** That's another chapter down. Chapter five is coming soon. Thanks to all the reviewers.

_Reviewers:_  
  
_Iluska – I update around once a week, but it can vary. I always put the chapter up as soon as I finish it. Severus will enjoy a little romance in this Fic, unfortunately not a slash. I do have a romance partner for Severus in mind although it will not last very long. Thanks for the review, I hope you will keep reading :D  
  
Messmarauder017_ (review via email)_ – You're right, I reckon I do make my paragraphs a little too long, so in future I'll try some more paragraphing. As useful as editors are, I don't reckon I will ever use one, just takes up too much time. Yes this fic is a little "odd," it is nothing like yours and I hope that you will continue reading it because It will get better as time goes on. I always find the first few chapters a bugger to write. Keep in mind I am only thirteen years old._  
  
Next chapter coming soon,  
  
- atom-rocks


	5. The Midnight Duel

**A/N:** _I'm REALLY sorry that i've taken so long to update. My internet has been down for the last few weeks. But in the time i was not updating i wrote two chapters and got a good head start on the third one. So without further introduction, here is chaper five!_

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**CHAPTER FIVE – THE MIDNIGHT DUEL**  
  
Later that night Severus and Lucius snuck out of their common room and went to wait at the Quidditch pitch for their wizards duel. Severus was more then nervous, in fact he was near shaking. The only thought that stopped him from shaking was that he didn't want to lose the respect of Lucius. Now he knew how hard it was to earn.  
  
When Sirius and James arrived, Lucius was ready. He had his wand in his hand and was on his feet as soon as he realised the two Gryffindors had arrived. Sirius sneered at him.  
  
"This is how it's going to work," he said, "As much as I'd like to kill you Malfoy, if I do we will get expelled-"  
  
Severus tensed up, remembering his father's past.  
  
"-so we'll have to change the rules a bit. We'll duel on the Quidditch pitch and the first person to be knocked out will lose. When one person has lost, his second will take over. Understand Malfoy?"  
  
Lucius sneered, "I do Black!"  
  
The two underage wizards made their way to the pitch. James & Severus stood on the side-lines to watch. Lucius and Sirius bowed to each other, neither taking their eyes off the other. The two of them were waiting for some sign to start the duel. Severus gave it to them.  
  
"On the count of three, start," he said, "Three, Two,"  
  
But Lucius had already started, and he had just thrown the disarming spell at Sirius. Sirius's wand flew out of the pitch and landed at James's feet. Sirius was not allowed to exit the ring to get it, so that meant he would have to fight hand-to-hand in combat. He launched himself at Lucius.  
  
"Stupefy!" shouted Lucius.  
  
The spell was a little too advanced for a first year so it didn't stun Sirius, but it was still very affective. Sirius fell back and landed on the line of the ring. He rolled over before he fell out. He knew he had no chance of winning without his wand, but he wanted to drag the fight on for as long as he could. If he could get his wand he might be able to win, but he knew he couldn't do it.  
  
Unless...  
  
Sirius rolled over to the sideline, being careful not to put any part of his body out of the ring, and he tried to reach his wand. It was lying at James's feet, but due to rules James could not pick it up or push it towards him. But Severus knew he could use James to his advantage. He only hoped James had figured out his plan. It looked like he had.  
  
Lucius threw a third stunning charm at Sirius. He dodged and it hit James, he slipped over & as he fell he pushed the wand a little. Enough to push it into Sirius's outstretched hand. Sirius took his wand and aimed it at Lucius, but Lucius was ready for him.  
  
"Expelliarmus!"  
  
He had knocked the wand out of Sirius's hand again, and this time Sirius stumbled back and he fell out of the ring! Lucius had one the first duel. He turned to Sirius, who was still on the ground, waiting for him to say something. Sirius was still on the ground, in hysterics. He didn't seem to care that he'd been beaten by his new mortal enemy, he thought the whole thing was a joke!  
  
"Potter, ready to continue?" Lucius half asked, half sneered.  
  
James Potter said nothing as he entered the ring. He drew his wand and the two of them bowed to each other. Sirius counted down and the duel began. James started the duel and he threw every charm he knew, and there weren't many, at Lucius and within seconds the man was on the ground. Potter had the early advantage. Lucius did not want to give up at such an early stage. He dodged a few of Potter's charms and threw one of his own.  
  
"Impedimenta!"  
  
Potter was knocked backwards, his wand slipped from his grasp and he landed on the line of the Quidditch Pitch. Severus was stunned, Lucius's duelling skills were amazing! Perhaps he had a father that had loved him and wanted his son to be a dueller. Little did Severus know however, Lucius had never had a father.  
  
"Accio wand!"  
  
Lucius now had two wands, and he pointed them both at Potter to finish him off. His mouth started to form the words "Stupefy," which he knew would knock Potter out of the ring.  
  
"Stupefy!"  
  
But something else happened. Instead of knocking Potter out of the ring, the spells had re-bounded onto Lucius, and he had dropped Potter's wand. Lucius flew up into the air and then he landed out of the ring! Potter had won the second verse. Which meant...which meant it was Severus's turn for a duel.  
  
Lucius landed on the ground with a thud! and turned to Severus.  
  
"What happened?" he asked weakly.  
  
Severus had seen the whole thing, "The two Stupefys collided and then hit the ground, and they backfired onto you."  
  
Lucius nodded, "Well finish Potter off for me then!"  
  
Severus needed no introduction. He held his wand firmly in his hand and then bowed to Potter. Potter smirked.  
  
"Do you even have a mind of your own Snape?" Potter asked, "This whole time I don't think I have heard you speak once, except to tell Malfoy over there how he fell out of the ring. Stand up for yourself, and don't hang around with scum like him. Just because you're in Slytherin doesn't mean that you can't be cool, like me and Sirius over there!"  
  
Black waved.  
  
"Err.." said Snape, lost for words, "I'll bear that in mind."  
  
Potter had taken advantage of Severus's tongue-twist, and had fired the tickling spell at him. Severus dropped to the ground, squirming and trying to throw it off. When he had he grabbed his wand in his hand and fired one of the only spells he knew at him, and that was one that he had seen his mum use to put a picture on the wall when it had fallen off.  
  
"Wingardium Leviosa!"  
  
Potter rose in the air, spun around a couple of times, and then fell to the ground. He would've landed on his head had he not put his hand out. Severus heard a snap and realised that he must've broken Potter's wrist! For a moment Severus thought Potter was unconscious. But at that precise moment...  
  
"Harpus Burnis!"  
  
Severus's insides seemed to burn, he felt like he was on fire! He slipped to the ground and he squirmed around again, having a fit. This was unbelievable pain, he had never experienced a spell or charm like this before. He had dropped his wand when squirming around, and he couldn't see very well because his eyes were watering up. He clutched around on the ground until he found his wand. Potter had his attention on his broken wrist. Severus decided to use Impedimenta. His mouth started to say the curse.  
  
"**STOP**!"  
  
Severus, Potter, Black and Lucius all turned to see where the voice had come from. Professor Taylor, who was the Potions Master at Hogwarts, was sprinting across the fields, McGonagall at his heels. The 1st years had been busted!  
  
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**A/N:** Well there's chapter five down. I worked hard on that chapter, so appreciate it for me. I'm plotting the rest of the story out and I'm wondering what are considered the "important," years at Hogwarts. I don't think I'll be able to put all Severus's seven years at Hogwarts into one story, so after I've finished year one I might skim a few years, and then put year seven in it's full form. One thing is certain and that is that the chapters will become a lot longer.  
  
Next chapter will include a Potions lesson. I want to make Professor Taylor into one of the main characters. I can't remember what I made the rating for this story, but I'll have to check it and maybe change it because there will be a lot of swearing and maybe some sex scenes.

Reviews:

_abby abberline - thanks for your kind words. Thank you for reviewing!_

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_samhaincat - Thank you for reviewing! So glad that you didn't think my story was crap, and so glad that someone as good a writer as you said that it was interesting. Your right there will be some history that people might find boring, but i plan to skip a little bit. I will make Snape's thoughts a little more known, as soon as I have a little more control over them. As for what you said about not having oodles of reviews well, i always will worry, I will not be happy until i have a least one hundred. LOL!_

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That's enough for now, thanks for reading, now review!

- atom-rocks


	6. Lupin & Lestrange

**CHAPTER SIX – LUPIN & LESTRANGE**  
  
Severus, Lucius, Potter and Black sat in Professor McGonagall's empty office, waiting for her to return. She had left with Professor Taylor to fetch the headmaster, and had warned the four boys that if any of them were to move or make a sound they would be expelled instantly. Well there was still a good chance that could happen now, thought Sirius.  
  
Suddenly the doors swung open and in walked Professor Dumbledore! If the headmaster was here then it must be serious. Professors McGonagall and Taylor were at his heels, but neither followed him in when he entered. Dumbledore used to his wand to perform a silencing charm on the room, and then closed the door.  
  
"I have asked the two Professors for a private word with each of you," he said sternly, "I hope that you all know the seriousness of what you all committed tonight. Not only were you out past your curfew, but you could have seriously injured each other. Severus you are very lucky that Madam' Pomfrey can heal James's wrist in a second. She is on her way down here now. Now as to your punishment you can be rest assured that I won't be expelling you," Severus breathed a sigh of relief, "never in Hogwarts history has a student been expelled on his first day at the school. But I will be punishing you severely so that we can make sure this kind of behaviour will NEVER happen again. Do you understand that?"  
  
The four students nodded. Dumbledore softened his expression.  
  
"I think I shall leave it up to Professor Taylor to decide your punishment," the aging Professor said, "He was the one who caught you out of school boundaries after all. I shall bid good night to you all!"  
  
With that Dumbledore waved his wand in the air, and the silencing charm was removed. He exited the room, and Professor Taylor entered, Madam Pomfrey at his heels. She walked over to Potter, examined his wrist and waved her wand. In a second it was back to normal. She sighed and exited. Professor Taylor slammed the door behind her and then started at the students, waiting for one of them to say something. The four of them stayed silent.  
  
"WELL?" he asked, "WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY FOR YOURSELVES? DO YOU NOT KNOW THE SERIOUSNESS OF THIS SITUATION, YOU COULD HAVE SERIOUSLY HURT YOURSELVES, NOT TO MENTION BEING OUT OF BED AFTER HOURS!"  
  
There was a few seconds of silence. "We're sorry," said Black.  
  
"SORRY DOESN'T CUT IT!" shouted Professor Taylor. Then he seemed to take a breath so he could breathe.  
  
"50 points will be taken from Gryffindor for this monstrosity," the Professor said, "and a further 25 points from Slytherin. I expect to see the four of you back here tomorrow straight after dinner for further punishment."  
  
The four students stayed silent, "Get out of my sight!"  
  
Severus needed no encouragement. He made a beeline for the door and was out first. Then him and Lucius walked back to the common room. When they entered all of the house had gone to bed except for one boy in the corner. Mcnair had waited up for them, wanting to hear the details of the fight. Severus was in no mood to tell him. Lucius however, told him it all and how he gloriously defeated Black. When he got to the part of his own defeat, he told it so that it sounded like Potter had cheated. Then he told Mcnair that Severus would have defeated Potter if he had remained in the ring a little longer and Severus felt a little better, even though he knew it was not true.  
  
He was anxious to get up the stairs and into bed. He hadn't told anyone, but he was still in a lot of pain because of the "Harpus Burnis," curse that Potter had put on him. He imagined that it must be similar to an unforgivable curse. He didn't know much about the unforgivable curses, only what his mother had told him. He wished that he'd known one of them, it would have made the fight against Potter so much easier. He grinned at the thought of him on the ground in an intense amount of pain. He laughed.  
  
He winced. Laughing now hurt quite a bit. He put a hand to his stomach and stood up, he now felt like sleep. Lucius and Mcnair didn't notice his pain, so he didn't have to answer any dodgy questions. He crept into his room and soon was fast asleep.  
  
#  
  
The next morning Severus was the last person in his dorm to rise. When he went downstairs the few Slytherins who had not headed down to the common room for breakfast cheered, a few even slapped him on the back. He guessed that everyone had found out about the duel with the Gryffindors. A whole bunch of Slytherins congratulated him.  
  
"Certainly showed them whose boss!" commented one Slytherin, "Good work Sev."  
  
Sev? His mother had called him that and he loathed that nickname. His father had not named him Sev, he had named him Severus, and he knew that had been his father's choice of a name. Now the Slytherins knew him as Sev! The thought of being called that made him want to crawl into the carpet and disappear. He went down to breakfast and took his seat right next to Lucius. The blonde Slytherin grinned at him.  
  
"We'll get those mugglelovers one day," he said, "We really cleaned up on that Quidditch pitch and I know had Taylor not caught us you would've won that duel Severus. I'm sure that those Gryffindors are mighty pissed off at the moment!"  
  
"Yep," said Severus. His mind was elsewhere, for he had just seen the most beautiful girl in the world enter the hall. He recognised her from the sorting, and hoped that the Sorting Hat had put her in Slytherin. With great disappointment Severus saw he take a seat across from Potter at the Gryffindor table. He sighed, she really looked something special. She was short but elegant, and had great flaming red hair flopping over her shoulders. Severus also realised that she wore glasses.  
  
A girl took a seat next to Severus and he turned around to look at her. She had also been in the sorting line. She had hazel eyes, black hair and her face seemed to be twisted into a sort of sneer. She was tall, but not as tall as Severus, fairly plump, and had a mole just under her nose. Severus fought the urge to shudder, this girl was the definition of ugly. She stuck out her hand to him.  
  
"Bellatrix Lestrange," she said.  
  
He took it, and noticed with disgust it was all sweaty, "Severus Snape."  
  
She grinned at him, and he noticed un-even yellow teeth.  
  
"Slytherin's latest hero huh?" she asked, "It's an honour to meet you!"  
  
"Uh huh," said Severus. Normally he would have said something like likewise, but this woman turned him off so much he didn't want to. Lucius cleared his throat.  
  
"Excuse me," he said, "But I believe I was a hero last night as well!"  
  
"Oh yeah?" asked Bellatrix, "What's your name?"  
  
"Lucius Malfoy!" Lucius said proudly.  
  
Severus racked his brains, where had he heard the name Malfoy before. It seemed to be on the tip of his tongue, he just couldn't think properly.  
  
"A Malfoy huh?" she asked, "I'm Bellatrix Lestrange, I think my mum and dad know your mum from..." she glanced at Severus, "work."  
  
Severus understood what she meant. It was common knowledge that Lucius's mother was a Death Eater. His mother had told him long ago that Death Eaters could not be trusted, but his father spoke most highly of them, and always expressed his depression at the fact that he was not one of them. They hadn't approached him because of his lack of education, and there was no point having a Death Eater who didn't have a wand.  
  
"I see," said Lucius, "Yes I remember the Lestranges. Always seemed to turn up to my mum's parties. Guess they were close friends."  
  
"Guess so," said Bellatrix, "I'll see you two around then, I've just remembered that I promised to owl my parents after the first day."  
  
Severus watched her walk away with disgust. What a pig, he thought. He was still wondering where the hell he had heard Malfoy's name. He now knew that Malfoy's parents, or at least his mother, was a Death Eater. This didn't help him in the least. He finished off lunch and went back to his room to get his books.  
  
#  
  
Severus's luck continued to slop that day. Bellatrix seemed to have taken a likening to him & Lucius, and sat next to them in all their lessons. When period five was beginning he decided he couldn't take Bellatrix Lestrange anymore, and he took a seat on the other side of the room next to a boy who was on his own. Severus was still unfamiliar with his roommates, so he was not sure if this boy was in his class or not, seeing as it was a Gryffindors / Slytherins class today. Whoever this boy was, he was deeply absorbed in his book.  
  
The class was Potions, and Severus was dreading this lesson. He awaited Professor Taylor's reaction to him with dread. He was hoping that Taylor would be civil, and wouldn't mention a thing of the previous night at all. He'd have to see how the lesson went. The first thing Taylor did when he entered was take the roll. When he got to "Lupin, Remus," the boy who was next to Severus reading snapped his book shut and said "here!" So that was his name, Severus thought.  
  
When Professor Taylor had finished the roll he waved his wand and the ingredients for some potion appeared on the board. Taylor told them that it was a sleeping potion, which would put the drinker out for 12 hours if he drunk an entire bottle. Taylor then told them to work in pairs, and left them to it. Severus looked around, Lucius and Mcnair were working together and he noticed Bellatrix waddling towards him. He turned to Remus Lupin next to him.  
  
"Partners?" he asked.  
  
Lupin nodded, "Sure," he said, and then introduced himself properly.  
  
Bellatrix waddled over to Severus. "Be my partner?" she asked.  
  
Severus shook his head, "Already got one."  
  
She walked in another direction. Lupin raised an eyebrow, "Friend of yours?"  
  
Severus shuddered, "Hell no!"  
  
Lupin laughed, and for the remainder of the lesson him and Lupin made light conversation. Severus was relieved when the lesson ended that Professor Taylor hadn't mentioned the duel at midnight once. But as he was leaving with Lupin, the Professor said, "Remember Snape, I expect you back here with Malfoy, Black and Potter after dinner!"  
  
Lupin raised an eyebrow, "What you get detention from him for?"  
  
Severus told him all about the duel, realising that if Lupin didn't know already this must mean he was in Gryffindor, and whatever house he was in hadn't come up during their conversation in Potions. As they entered the Great Hall, Severus had to break off to go and eat lunch at his own table. But before that he had one last question for Lupin.  
  
"Whose that?" he asked him, pointing at the stunningly beautiful redhead who he had first laid eyes on at breakfast.  
  
Lupin glanced at her, "That's Lily Evans," he said, "She's in Gryffindor with me. Well, see you later then."  
  
"Later," said Sirius, walking across to the Slytherin table and taking his usual seat beside Lucius. Lucius raised an eyebrow at him.  
  
"You making friends with muggleloving scum?" he asked.  
  
"Sorry?" asked Severus.  
  
"That kid Lupin," said Lucius, "He's not a pureblood Slytherin like us, he's a mugglelover and he's where he belongs, in Gryffindor with the rest of his kind!"  
  
"Come off it," said Severus, "They're not all bad!"  
  
Lupin smirked at him, "Whatever you say!"  
  
Severus stood up, "I've got to go," he said quickly, taking his bag and exiting the Great Hall. Lucius's comments had only been half the reason he had left. He had noticed out of the corner of his eye that Bellatrix had been about to park her fat arse in the seat next to him. The last thing he needed at the moment was more of Bellatrix Lestrange.  
  
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A/N: Longest chapter to date! I still haven't established Professor Taylor as a main character, but I will get around to it. Later in the story Professor Taylor will have a short but major role. I'll start working on chapter seven as soon as I can. But at the moment I'm flat out with school work and I don't have a lot of time to write these chapters. But as soon as I've done chapter 7 I will put it up. In the next chapter I'll have Severus's detention, and I don't know what else I'll put in. There are a lot of ideas bouncing around in my head.  
  
Well until then - ATOM (atom-rocks)  
  
PS: The at sign (the circle with a small a inside it) doesn't work on QuickEdit, and neither does the underscore, but if you want to add me to your MSN then atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com. If you do add me, make sure that you say you know me from FF. That's all for now, cya! 


	7. Letters & Flashbacks

**A/N:** Thanks to ALL the reviewers, I appreciate all of you doing what you do. Also a further thanks to the person who is responsible for probably more then half of them, Iluska. If it was not for you I would have given up hope and probably taken a lot longer in putting another chapter up. Some of you might've also noticed that I introduced Bellatrix as Bellatrix Lestrange, when of course she should be Bellatrix Black. At first I was going to think up some reason for her having changed her name, but in the end I decided no point, it was my mistake and I hope it won't happen again. If anyone notices any further little mistakes, please point them out to me.

**Warning** – This chapter contains child abuse and occasional bad language (swearing lol)

…And now (drum roll…)

**Chapter Seven – Flashbacks & Letters**

The rest of the day passed quickly for Severus. When dinnertime came around Lucius reminded him that they still had Professor Taylor's detention to attend. Severus cursed, he had almost forgotten about it. Almost. He glanced over at the Gryffindor table and saw that Potter and Black were their usual chatting selves. They obviously didn't let it get them down. He couldn't help but notice that his Gryffindor friend Remus Lupin was sitting between them. Was he their friend?

Severus forgot about it and went back to his dinner. He tried to eat as slowly as possible but in the end he decided it best to get it over with. He finished his door, stood and headed down to the dungeons with Lucius at his side. Professor Taylor was brewing some kind of potion, and he nodded at them.

"When Mr. Potter and Mr. Black decide to join us we shall begin," he said.

The man returned to his Potion brewing. Potter and Black turned up five minutes later. Taylor shouted at them for their lateness, even though they were right on time, and took 20 points off Gryffindor. Severus started to feel a little better.

"I suppose you are all wondering what your punishment is," said Taylor, "Well I want you to scrub at these floors until they are spotless, and I don't think I have to tell you that no magic will be allowed. Although I fail to see what magic first years can do after only two days at Hogwarts!"

"But the floor is already spot-" began Lucius, and Severus realised that it was fairly clean upon one glance.

The Potions master held up a hand to silence him. He waved at the four students to move back, then he grabbed the cauldron he had been brewing a potion in, and he splashed the contents all over the dungeon floor! Immediately the dungeon floor dirtied. Cobweb remains, thick blackish roots and purple stains were left surfacing everywhere. The floor was anything but spotless. Professor Taylor sneered at them. He waved his wand and four sets of cleaning materials appeared in the corner.

"What are you waiting for?" he sneered, "I shall be back here in two hours to check on your progress."

When he left the room, Black let out a groan. Lucius cursed under his breath, and Potter kicked the wall. But Severus simply applied some gloves, fetched a scrubbing brush and bucket and attempted to scrub at the dungeon floors. Lucius gaped at him.

"You are a _Slytherin!_" he hissed, "how can you even _think_ of lowering yourself to scrubbing floors! This is work worthy of a house-elf!"

Severus ignored him. Professor Taylor reminded Severus of his father a bit. His father had used to punish him by dirtying up spotless surfaces and forcing Severus to clean them. However his father had punished him a lot more after.

-Flashback-

"HOW DARE YOU ENTER MY DUNGEONS!" his father screamed at a five year old Severus, who was crying on the floor. The infant had wandered down the stairs and had entered his father's private dungeons. Samuel dragged Severus by his ear into another part of the house, into the kitchens. He opened the cupboards and took out some glasses, then he dropped them to the floor and let them smash. When the floor was covered in glass, he pushed Severus to his knees and kicked him across the floor, making him crawl over broken glass.

"DO IT YOU LITTLE SHIT!" Samuel shrieked.

Severus started to at first, but after he cut himself he started crying and refused to go any further. His father whipped out his mother's wand, which he had stolen off her to render her defenceless, and shouted "_Curcio!_"

Severus screamed, he was way too young to be experiencing this kind of pain. After that he cried for hours and hours on end, and when he wouldn't move anymore his father simply rolled him across the shatters of broken glass as if he was nothing but a soccer ball. That was the first time his father had ever used the Cruciatus Curse on him, and it certainly wasn't the last.

-End Flashback-

Severus winced, that was one of his worst childhood memories ever. After that he had never dared to go into his father's headquarters again. But he had always wondered what his father had kept in there. He wondered what could be so bad that his father would want to hide from him. After all, as much as he'd wanted to be his father had never been a Death Eater. He was so caught up in his thoughts that he didn't even notice when he crawled into a spot that was wet from where he'd been previously scrubbing. He slipped, and his face hit the side of the bucket of dirty water. It tipped up and the contents splashed over Severus's face.

Potter and Black howled with laugher. Lucius, who had not even began scrubbing, looked at Severus with a look of pure disgust on his face. Severus couldn't remember ever being more embarrassed. He spluttered and spat greyish coloured water out of his mouth. Now he'd have to work for extra long to clear this extra mess up. On top of that he wasn't allowed to use magic to refill his water, although he knew no spell that would help him. He knew better then to ask Potter and Black for resources. Lucius on the other hand, hadn't even started cleaning with his bucket, surely no harm would come in borrowing some of Lucius's resources. He took the bucket and started scrubbing.

"Careful there _Snivellus!_" taunted Black.

Snivellus? Sev was one thing, but Snivellus? He cursed his father for giving him such a dumb name.

"Fuck you!" he spat at Black. Black raised an eyebrow.

Two hours later Severus collapsed into a chair in the common room. He was so glad to be out of the dungeons. Professor Taylor had awarded him ten points for doing a good job on the floor and had taken ten points from Gryffindor because he thought Black and Potter had done a bad job, even though they worked together and finished first. Lucius, was in for a lot of trouble it seemed. Upon hearing that Lucius had not even made an attempt to scrub the floor, Professor Taylor had taken five points from Slytherin and giving Lucius detention for every week for the rest of the week, and sent him to the Headmaster.

Severus was secretly glad. Lucius had been getting on his nerve all day. Mcnair had not waited up for them this time, but someone else had.

_No not you, _thought Severus as Bellatrix walked over to him. She sat down next to him.

"Hey!" she said, "how was detention?"

"Good," Severus grunted, not wanting to relive his embarrassing experience. He tuned out while Bellatrix chewed his ear off, reliving the experience in the dungeons. At that moment the door swung open to the portrait hole, and Lucius walked in. He wore a look of pure anger on his face.

"I hate him," he shouted, "I hate fucking Professor _Taylor!_" he spat out the name with hatred.

"Why?" asked Bellatrix.

Lucius glared at her, "Dumbledore owled my mother. Professor Taylor convinced him that my behaviour is _unacceptable_ and that I have to stop acting like a pampered little-prince and grow up because I am in school now. He took ten points from Slytherin!"

Lucius and Bellatrix talked a bit more about Professor Taylor, and Severus slipped upstairs & went to sleep.

Severus woke early that next morning to the sound of an owl pecking on the window. He let it in and was most surprised when it dropped a letter on his bed. He never received owls, ever. He looked at the address on the front of it and realised it was from his mother. He opened up the envelope eagerly.

_Dear Severus,_

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_I am so proud of you, and so glad that you are going to school. Well I am just glad that I could give you a little break from this home, and hopefully one day you'll know enough magic to make sure that Samuel_ (she never called him dad, or your father)_ cannot maintain his grip on you. You are strong Severus, you have survived all these years with him and I only prey that you won't have to survive more. Samuel is slowly becoming more and more unhinged, I think he yearns to join the Death Eaters but he knows that since his knowledge for magic is limited he can never join them. Samuel still practises magic, unfortunately I discovered that is what he does locked up inside the dungeons all day._

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_Samuel is not the man I loved. The man I loved was full of pride and kindness, and it was only after you came along that he changed. But don't blame yourself, I know that he became very vicious and violent because he was jealous that his son would learn all the magic he never did, and now that it is happening he is slowly breaking from the inside. I am pleased to tell you that I have not been hurt of fondled since you left for Hogwarts, I guess he is too mad to really care about punishing anymore. This does not mean that I am not scared, I have seen what your father can do when he is mad. Remember he is a murderer._

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_Take care of yourself Severus, once again I am as proud as a mother can be that Hogwarts accepted you, and that you were sorted into Slytherin. Watch out for Death Eater descendants, I know for a fact that there are some at Hogwarts. See only a few hours ago there was a Death Eater attack on Diagon Alley. I suggest you look for details in your local newspaper. I was there to witness, but fortunately I walked away unharmed. Try not to worry to much about me Severus, I will survive._

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_I do want to see you in the holidays, but I don't want you to be around your father. I will make something work so that your father will not be here upon your return. Talk to you soon, and remember not to worry about me,_

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_- Mother_

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Severus felt like crying. His mother was telling him not to worry about her. He couldn't help it, no matter what she said he'd never stop worrying about her. He thought back to the last time he saw her.

-Flashback-

Antoinette pushed him towards the barrier, "Go on or you'll be late!"

"But-" Severus replied, he didn't want to leave his mother alone with Samuel.

His mother smiled a sad smile at him, "Don't you worry about me, I'll be fine while your gone. Just you remember to have a great time at Hogwarts, keep your head down and learn lots, understand?"

Severus nodded. His mother beamed at him, "Good, then get going!"

Severus finally caved in. He turned around and walked through the barrier.

-End Flashback-

Severus folded up the letter and put it under his pillow. His dorm was just starting to get up now. Lucius, who was in the bunk about Severus, swung his feet over and dropped down to the floor. Severus pretended he'd just woke up, shower, got dressed and headed down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

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**A/N:** Finally, I've finished off most of the current events so I can skim along in the story a little bit. I don't want to spoil the surprise, but I am prepared to kill someone off before chapter ten, maybe even in chapter ten. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, I'll start work on the next one A.S.A.P. Now that you've read, please review. Remember my email address if u want to add me to your MSN, some symbols don't work with quit edit but here it is -

atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com (Remember to tell me your from FanFiction!)

Reviewers 

_Marauder4eva – Yep you are one of the people who noticed my error with Bellatrix's name so Good work. As for your other question about knowing all those spells, well Lucius's mother is a Death Eater, Sirius's parents are Dark Wizards, James's parents are in the Order Of The Phoenix and Severus pretty much mimicked the spells they used, with only one original one & I did put in an explanation for him knowing that one. Thanks for reviewing!_

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_Occasus, Widow767 & abby abberline – Thanks for all your reviews. Glad that you all liked my story, hope you will all keep reading. That's all, so yeah :D!_

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_Keyerie – Thanks a bunch for your insight into Bellatrix's family tree, I have a feeling it will be of some use in future chapters._

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Until next time,

ATOM (atom-rocks)


	8. A Beginners Guide To The Dark Arts

**A/N:** I know of two great authors who have both advertised this story a little, and I'd feel a little bad if I didn't return the favour. One of them is called Iluska and her current story that I'm reading at the moment is called "Through The Darkness," and it takes on an interesting plot which refers to the Severitius Challenge, which is a challenge started by an author on FF and it bounds Harry and Severus together in a father/son relationship. Maybe sometime I'll have a go at the Severitius Challenge. I have long since discovered that you can't put links in a story, so I can't paste a direct link to her story. But it can be found under my favourites and is called Through The Darkness.

The other author who also writes an interesting story and has given me more then a little bit of exposure is called Marauder4eva and her story is called Life Of A Marauder. Obviously I can't put links on the page but if you run along to my Favourites then her story will be there as well. It's a Lily/James pairings story and I don't like many Lily/James stories but this one I love the hell out of. Check it out, it's awesome.

**Disclaimer:** I don't HP. Build a bridge and get over it!

**CHAPTER EIGHT – A BEGINNERS GUIDE TO THE DARK ARTS**

The rest of the month passed quickly for Severus. He felt that he had now settled into the school and without a doubt being enrolled at Hogwarts was the best thing that ever happened to him. Lucius however, felt different. He told Severus's dorm one evening, and there were seven boys in the dorm counting him and Severus, that his mother had wanted to send him to a school in another state because the Headmaster there was a lot more strict when it came to enrolling muggleborns. Unfortunately the school had not accepted him for reasons unknown. Lucius talked about his family life a lot, but one thing Severus noticed was that he never ever mentioned his father. He wondered if perhaps his father had walked out on the Malfoy family or something like that.

The other boys in Severus's dorm all seemed to follow Lucius in whatever he did. The most notable of all, in other words the biggest suck-up, was a boy called Avery. He acted as if he would like nothing more then to spend his entire life kissing Lucius's arse. The first year girls were no better. There were four 1st year girls in Slytherin. Besides Bellatrix, her two sisters Narcissa and Andromeda were in the house. Severus later found out that they were related to the Sirius Black that Severus had duelled with on his first day at the school, but to his shock all three siblings had rejected him once he had been sorted into Slytherin.

(**A/N:** Thanks to reviewer Kyerie, who supplied some interesting information about the Black family tree)

Severus had to admit that he felt like a little bit of a loner among all the other Slytherins. He was sure that most of them, like Lucius, had grown up as spoiled little princes while he'd been raised dragged through mud. Severus also felt trapped, like there was no one he could talk to about his problems. Severus suspected maybe Mcnair had received bad fatherhood, as he had shown signs of similarity to Severus. He didn't stick to Lucius all the time, sometimes he sat alone in classes and he no longer went everywhere with him. Mcnair was also very quiet, he almost never spoke in class and he seemed quite shy.

One of the other boys in Severus's dorm who didn't suck up to Lucius was Rudolphus. But he was worse then the suck-ups, he seemed to think of himself and Lucius as equals. Severus sensed that Rudolphus wanted to be a Death Eater, and he began to think if he wanted to be one or not. His mother might've warned him that he should have nothing to do with them, but as nice as she couldn't know that much about the Death Eaters. Besides, if he could become a Death Eater, he might be able to use his abilities to get revenge on his father.

He often dreamt flashbacks of his father's abuse, and these things were enough to make him wake up in a cold sweat. He knew how much the others would ridicule him if he screamed out in the middle of the night. But the memories he revisited were more then enough for him to do so if he ever really wanted. He had never forgotten his father's steel kane, which he had used to beat Severus with once. The kane had been one of his father's favourite punishments, and he had used it several times. Severus had also had to experience the Cruciatus Curse a lot, but he had never mastered it.

One night, after waking up from a dream which involved Severus watching his father beat his mother senseless with his kane, he suddenly felt mad. Like he want to strike out at his father, make him pay for all the pain and suffering he had caused to other people. He looked around for something to bear his wrath, but all he found were the pillows on his bed. He grabbed one, imagined it was Samuel Snape, and ripped it to shreds!

About ten minutes later, when Severus was standing in the toilets looking at himself in the mirror, he had to admit that he felt a lot better. It looked like he had discovered that ripping something or someone to shreds would relive pain for him. He knew he should've felt sick at the realisation that pain and suffering caused him pleasure, but at the moment he seemed to be floating on a natural high. All of a sudden he felt the urge to strike out again, he wanted to find something else that could bear his wrath. He walked down the stairs in his dressing gown to look for something to calm him down a little. He saw a book lying open on the Slytherin common room table.

_A Beginners Guide To The Dark Arts._

He flipped the book back to the start and then began to read the first few chapters, he wanted to tire himself out so that he could fall asleep. But to his surprise the book wasn't half bad, it explained to him the reason that he had never been able to use the Cruciatus Curse. It told him that he had to feel a hate for the person that he was placing the curse on strong enough to fuel it. So the Cruciatus Curse was fuelled on pain. He would have to remember that had he ever want to use the curse. He was sure that if he pictured his father's face then it would work. Another section at the bottom of the book caught his eye.

_The Ruducto Curse, which is commonly used to blast solid objects aside, can also be quite effective when used on people. When a wizard with a strong enough power surge uses it on another wizard, and it can cause them to fly up to several feet backwards. If the spell is also used effectively then it might also be fatal, for instance is the Dark Lord himself used it on someone then most likely that person would be killed after losing an incredible amount of blood. This is only an estimate, and as far as we know no-one has ever died from the curse._

Severus skim-red a little more of the article until he came to the section which taught him how to use the Ruducto Curse. He would have to point it at a solid object and say the incarnation out loud. Well, he would only hope that blowing the table apart would not wake up the whole of Slytherin house. He would have waited until tomorrow, but he couldn't wait. He went back up to his dorm, fetched his wand, and returned downstairs. He aimed his wand at the table and said quietly but menacingly "Ruducto!"

The table blew to shreds!

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The next morning Severus was wide-awake when he leapt out of bed. He had taken up the guide to the Dark Arts to his dorm with him and had read a long way into the night. Instead of being tired however, he was fascinated to learn more. Once he thought he knew enough curses he decided he would challenge Potter to a rematch, show him that he was a lot more powerful then Potter could ever hope to be.

Severus could never remember feeling this powerful. He had learnt a jumble of new curse that he could duel with and use against people and he still hadn't had a chance to show them off. He decided to pick a fight with Potter just before Potions, he knew that while he might get in trouble no-one would care because Professor Taylor rarely ever took points off his own house. So when the Gryffindor / Slytherin class was lining up Severus purposely bumped into the student. Potter sneered at him.

"All right Snivellus?" he asked mockingly.

"Never better," said Severus, swallowing his tongue so as not to use the Cruciatus Curse on him at that moment. He hated being called Snivellus, and Potter knew that.

"Your lucky that McGonagall and Taylor came when they did on that night of the duel," said Severus, "You wouldn't have stood a chance against me?"

Potter raised an eyebrow, "Can you back that up Snivellus?"

Severus glared, "Yes I can. Sometime in the near future I demand a rematch, this time in the middle of the day so that I can prove I am stronger then you. But this time it'll be different, no seconds and no rules. Any curse goes!"

Severus felt a pang of intense satisfaction noting the expression on Potter's face. Potter was looking mad, mad at the fact that he thought Severus could get away with these threats. But he did not want to get in trouble again after their narrow escape the first time. Severus raised his eyebrow.

"You game or not?"

Potter wiped the glare off his face and replaced it with a smirk. "Game!" he said.

"Excellent," said Severus, realising that he was gathering the attention of his fellow students, "Well how about skipping lunch for the duel. We can have it this afternoon on the Quidditch Pitch again. It can be the same as the last duel, only this time with one difference," Severus was surprised at how fast the words flowed out of his mouth, "This time I intend to finish the job!"

Potter was looking at him with a half curious, half suspicious expression on his face, "I'll see you there then!"

The rest of the afternoon dragged on for Severus, he was anxious for the duel. Just as the last lesson for that day, Herbology, was finishing off Severus noticed to his dismay that it was raining. This couldn't mean that the students would not be allowed outside. But when lunch came around Professor McGonagall informed the students that they would have to eat lunch indoors and that they would not be allowed outside. So Severus postponed the duel until next lunchtime.

But when the next day rolled around Severus had to postpone it once again because the rain had still not stopped. So Severus put it off for another day, and then when that day came it was still raining. Severus felt this was ridiculous so he decided to set an official date for the duel. November 15, and that would give both of them a lot of time to prepare. Severus was not exactly nervous about this, it just seemed to him that giving Potter more time to improve & harness his duelling skills would not be a good thing.

_But still_, he thought to himself, _that gives me more time to study the Dark Arts. I'm sure that I can finish that book before then!_

So Severus went back to reading every little bit of the book, making sure that he could perfect his duelling skills. After about a week Rudolphus was even telling Severus that he would find someone for him to practice the curses on.

"We can't have you lose to that Potter kid Severus," said Rudolphus, "Not that I think for one minute he could beat you. But it'd just help if we could bring your duelling skills up to scratch."

True to his word Rudolphus had found two people that Severus could practice on. The future Death Eater, not that Severus or anyone knew that of course, had found two third years who would let Severus cast spells on them. Severus had seen them hanging around Rudolphus a few times acting as bodyguards, they were called Crabbe & Goyle. Severus put away all of his weekend to practice spells on them, and in the end he could knock both of them out with one Ruducto curse.

Finally, after intense months of training, November 15 rolled around. Severus was running up to the common room to dump his bag for the duel, when he noticed an owl at the window. It had a letter for him. He took the letter from the owl and watched it fly into the distance. Then he checked his watch, he had time to read the letter before he went to the duel. Well, just. So he tore open the letter and looked at the first few sentences. He gasped...

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**A/N:** Cliffhanger, I know. I'll put the next chapter up soon A.S.A.P. and that should be getting into the story a little more. Let me tell you, you don't want to miss the next chapter because it will be relevant for the remainder of the entire story. It'll also put a lot more insight into the reason that Severus decided to join the Death Eaters, although I revealed a lot of the reason in this chapter.

Reviewers – 

_Marauder4eva – Thanks for the review, yes the story has become PG-13 (as the Americans call it, in Australia we refer to that as M15) and yes swear your head off if you really want to. I ain't going to stop you lol._

_Widow767 – Thanks for the review, yes good work at spotting that typographical error, and I hope I don't make any more stupid mistakes like that._

_Iluska – Another typographical error, god I must have been tired when I wrote that last chap. Well, let's hope that no more of them happen again. Yes Professor Taylor will be a major influence on Severus when he decides he wants to teach Potions at Hogwarts_.

**MSN – **atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com


	9. A Victory & A Loss

**CHAPTER NINE – A VICTORY & A LOSS**

Severus stared at the letter in his hands, dumbstruck for words. _This couldn't happen,_ he was thinking, _this can't be true_. But he knew, deep down that what he had just read was the truth. How could this have happened?

_Dear Severus Snape,_

_It is to my deepest regret that I must inform you of the murder of one Antoinette Purtwin. After I noticed some small suspicions (this is your neighbour writing this letter in case you cannot tell) so I went around to the house to check up on your parents. I went inside and found your father was missing, and I'm sorry to say I presume the worst for him as well. I found your mother's corpse sprawled across the kitchen floor, and I have no idea as to what happened. I am deeply sorry to have to be the one to break this news to you, and I would have rather done it face-to-face but since I was aware that you had started term 1 at Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft and Wizardry I knew it would be sometime before I could reach you with this news. _

_I have taken it upon myself to organise the funeral, and I will be owling Professor Dumbledore so he knows the circumstances of which you must return home soon. Once again I am deeply sorry to have to break this news to you, I only hope that you can be strong and not let it take control. _

_Yours sincerely_

_- Jasper Laskey_

Severus's hand started shaking, the letter slipped from his grasp and he suddenly extremely cold. His mother was dead? This couldn't be, this could not happen. But it had, he knew that it was the truth. He held back tears, her funeral would be a time for grieving, he couldn't lose face at Hogwarts when he was a Slytherin.

The door to the dormitory opened and Rudolphus strode in. He saw Severus sitting there in shock at shot him a glare.

"Everyone is waiting," he said, "James Potter is ready to start the duel!"

Severus barely heard him. Besides being in shock, something in the letter had just occurred to him. His neighbour had said something about his father being missing, he had presumed dead. But then again his neighbour didn't know his father. Was it quite possible that Samuel had killed Antoinette and had fled the scene? He had to get to the bottom of this, when he had to return home for the funeral he would find his father.

Suddenly his surroundings came back to him, Rudolphus was pushing him down the stairs to the duel. He snapped back to reality and remembered he had promised Potter a duel. Well, his mother might be dead but that was no excuse to call it off. He would give Potter a duel, & he would win. His hands were shaking again, but this time in anticipation instead of shock. He was going to use the Cruciatus Curse on Potter, and he was going to imagine it was his dad.

Severus and Rudolphus arrived at the Quidditch Pitch. All of the first year Slytherins and at least half of the first year Gryffindors were crowded around. Severus walked into the ring and he saw James Potter standing in the centre, looking a little intimidated. Severus joined him & the two wizard's bowed to each other. Then Sirius counted backwards from three, and then it began.

Severus threw a stunning charm at Potter first. He dodged it and it hit one of the Gryffindors who was outside the ring. Severus was amazed when he saw that he had actually stunned the first year. He was amazed, he didn't think even he had that much power. Potter threw the Disarming spell at Severus, but he dodged that as well, and then used one his secret weapon the Ruducto Curse.

"Ruducto!"

The spell hit Potter in the chest, he gasped and fell backwards. Severus had the upper hand now, he moved to throw another curse at Potter but Potter got in first.

"Flippinus!"

The spell hit Severus in the face and it _burned!_ Severus's face felt like it was on fire, he tried to calm it but couldn't. His eyes were watering so much he couldn't see, but his instincts told him to duck. Just as well he had, Potter had thrown a the Disarming spell at him. Severus wiped at his eyes and rolled over in time, Potter had sent a Stunning Charm at him. He got a good strong grip on his wand, aimed it at James and shouted "Impedimenta!"

Now Severus was recovering. His face had cooled down a bit, and he was ready to defeat the Potter boy! Or so he thought…

"Harpus Burnis!"

Severus dropped his wand and clutched his heart. He had been afraid of that, the heartburn curse. But he couldn't let it overpower him. He rolled over, picked up his wand and both him & Potter shouted a curse at the same time.

"Petrificus Totalus!" shouted Potter.

"Stupefy!" shouted Severus.

The curses caught each other in the middle and had Severus and Potter not both been on the ground then they would've finished each other off. This time Severus wouldn't let Potter strike before him. He got to his feet, aimed his wand and shouted "Crucio!"

The Cruciatus Curse, Severus had been saving that one for last. Potter shouted out in pain, & Severus knew what he was going threw. Of course the spell was not as effective as it would be from an adult or the Dark Lord, but it was still pretty effective. Severus lifted the curse off of Potter, shouted "Stupefy!" and then he had won.

The Slytherins erupted in cheers, the Gryffindors booed. Severus tried to force a grin onto his face but it wouldn't come. The letter from his neighbour was still in his mind. He felt his knees give way and he passed out.

###

When Severus awoke he was in an unfamiliar area. He looked around and upon realising that he was in a hospital bed he came to the conclusion he was in the Hospital Wing. He looked around and saw that Potter was in the bed next to him. The events of the duel came crashing back to him, he had won! Severus had actually won the duel, and probably the respect of the Slytherins. He was a little confused as to the reason that he was in the hospital wing, but he was sure that would be sorted out soon.

The female healer, Madam Pomfrey, came around the corner and saw that he had woken and threw him a stern glare.

"I hope you know that Professor Taylor is out for your blood," she said, "Upon hearing that his student had broken the same rule again he was livid. I had to near restrain him from here. But I'm sure he'll be fair, as fair as you can be for something like this!"

Severus didn't have the strength to say anything. At that moment the doors opened and the Headmaster walked in. He also had a stern look on his face but upon catching sight of Severus in the hospital wing he softened his glance.

"Poppy," he said, addressing Madam Pomfrey by her last name, "I would like a private word with Severus if you do not mind!'

Madam Pomfrey turned on her back and walked into her office. Dumbledore sat down on one of the chairs between Severus and Potter. He placed a hand on Severus's and looked up at him with a caring expression.

"I would punish you, had I not received this letter this morning," the Headmaster said, "And I cannot tell you how deeply sorry I am for your loss. I will need to know the contents of the duel of course but this can wait until later. At the moment I need to know if you would like to nominate someone as your guardian."

Severus almost burst into tears. He didn't want to tell Dumbledore that there was no-one he knew who would take him in. He couldn't help it, he burst into tears.

"There's no-one," he sobbed, "No-one is going to take me in, no-one cares for me! My mother was the only person who ever liked me and now my fucking father has killed her! I don't want to live with someone I've never met, I just want to stay here, I like it here!"

Professor Dumbledore understood what he was saying. He supposed he could make Severus a ward of Hogwarts. He would have to speak to the Minister about it sometime soon. But in the meantime, he had more important matters concerning Severus to deal with.

"The funeral will be next week," he said, "Mr. Laskey will be kind enough to take you in the night before the funeral, and then you will head back here. Do not worry about anything, you should be pressure-free for this sad event."

Severus dried his eyes. He had to accept the truth at last, his mother was dead.

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**A/N:** I'm not good at tear-jerking scenes, but I try. I hope everyone was satisfied with the duel scene, I wanted to give James a reason to hate Severus and now I have one. I wanted to put Severus's crossover to the dark side into perspective and I've started doing that, and I wanted to kill of someone close to Severus to fuel his anger, and I did.

So far I have accomplished everything I set out to before chapter ten, I'm so proud :D

_Reviewers:_

Thanks to Widow767, Iluska and BiancaNoel for reviewing. Sorry i just don't have time to reply to all the reviews about right now.


	10. Minister Ferdinand

**CHAPTER TEN – MINISTER FERDINAND**

Professor Taylor paced in Dumbledore's office, waiting for the elderly Headmaster to return. To say that he was mad would be an understatement, the Potions Master was livid, _furious!_ How dare Severus provoke a duel unsupervised, how _dare_ he use an Unforgivable Curse! He hoped with all his might Dumbledore would not expel the child, but he wanted Severus to be punished in one of the worst ways. Dumbledore knew Professor Taylor well, and knew that the man was short-tempered could overreact to the slightest things, so he had prevented him from visiting Severus in the hospital wing for now. Dumbledore had gone down to talk to him personally.

The doors to Dumbledore's office swung open and the elderly Professor walked in. Professor Taylor bombarded him with questions as to whether or not Severus would be expelled.

"Severus Snape will most certainly not be expelled," he said, "I do not wish to pursue this, as I have reason to believe Severus is not currently in the right state of mind."

Professor Taylor raised an eyebrow, "Really Albus, and why might that be?"

Dumbledore reached into his pocket and drew a letter. He passed it into Professor Taylor's hands. Professor Taylor read through, and his eyes widened in shock. He put the letter down on the table.

"I had no idea…" he began.

Dumbledore held up a hand to silence him, "Do not worry Romulus," said the Headmaster, "It only arrived this morning. Mr. Laskey sent a similar one to Severus informing him of the death of his mother, so I believe this might've gotten to Severus's head, he might've been in shock in the middle of the duel. I believe he channelled his shock into anger and that's what caused him to use the Cruciatus Curse. Heavens knows how a first year would know the Cruciatus Curse in the first place. We're lucky he is only eleven, otherwise the effect of the spell could have been much more hazardous!"

"So we're just going to let this wash are we?" asked Professor Taylor, "I understand that a lot of stress can make you do some crazy things, but we have to make him understand that this is unacceptable behaviour. We have to punish him, no matter how minor it is!"

Dumbledore nodded, "We will, but I just want to postpone it for a while. Severus will be going home for his mother's funeral next week, and he needs someone to accompany him until he meets his neighbour. I would like you to go with him on the train, see if you can get to know him a bit. Severus has no-one right now Romulus, he actually told me he wanted to become a ward of Hogwarts. I'll be meeting with the Minister of Magic tomorrow morning to discuss this with him."

Professor Taylor nodded, "Do you suppose I could go and see him right now?"

Dumbledore thought about this for a minute, then agreed, "Of course. But do not mention the duel to him. I don't want him to dwell on that right now. Merlin knows the boy has enough to worry about."

###

Professor Taylor walked into the hospital wing and found Severus was sitting with his head under his pillow. In the bed next to him Potter was being visited by two boys, Black and fellow Gryffindor Remus Lupin. Professor Taylor remembered it was Lupin who came to him with the news of the duel, and that Severus was going to fight Potter. Professor Taylor didn't want to have Black and Lupin eavesdropping on their conversation, so he ordered them out. Potter glared at Professor Taylor. The Potions master ignored him and sat down next to Severus. He tapped him on the shoulder, and the boy withdrew his face from the pillows.

"Professor Dumbledore has informed me that you need someone to take you back to London next week," he said, "Well I wouldn't mind accompanying you on the train ride. Once again I am deeply sorry for your loss, try not to hold your emotions in, no-one is going to judge you if you want to let it all out, do you hear me?"

Severus nodded. Professor Taylor turned around, pointed his wand at Potter and muttered "Obliviate!" Then he leaned in closer to Severus.

"I heard about your work in the duel earlier this afternoon," the Professor said, and he almost laughed at the look of fright on Severus's face, "and I heard all the curses that you used, and I mean _all_ of them," he tapped his nose, "some of those curses are fairly advanced and I would not expect a first year to know any of them. But since you are a little ahead of some others in curse knowledge, twenty points to Slytherin! Although since one of them was as we say illegal thirty-points from Slytherin."

With that Professor Taylor turned around and left a stunned Severus and a curious Potter in the hospital wing.

###

The next morning Dumbledore found himself twiddling his thumbs in the office of none other then Minister Ferdinand. Dumbledore had been informed that the Minister had an important issue to clear up and would be running a little late, but not much. Finally, the door opened and in walked Charles Ferdinand. He was around the same age as Dumbledore, and Dumbledore knew and trusted this man well. This man had gone to school with Dumbledore and the two of them had worked side-by-side on many projects when Dumbledore had taught the position of Transfiguration. Dumbledore had not seen his friend for a while now, and he was glad to be back in the company of him.

"Albus Dumbledore," said Ferdinand. He smiled at the man, "To what do I owe this pleasure?"

"It's a pleasure to see you again Charles," said Dumbledore, "Although unfortunately it is the gravest of circumstances that brings me here. You see a boy's mother has just died and his father has disappeared, and the boy wishes to become a ward of Hogwarts, as he has no-one else and no where else he can call home."

Ferdinand nodded, "Shame that. You know the procedure Albus, I can't just say yes out of the blue. I will have to think this over, and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Are you sure this boy has no-one else?"

"Pretty sure," said Dumbledore, "This was his idea after all."

"Well what about a muggle orphanage?" asked Ferdinand.

Dumbledore shook his head, "He is a pureblood Charles. He would raise too many questions trying to interact with muggles."

"Well you said his father was just missing," said Ferdinand, "Why don't you wait a little while, just in case the father turns up again."

"It's not that simple," replied Dumbledore. He leant in close, "I have reason to believe that his father might have murdered his mother, and that his disappearance was arranged so that he would not be brought to arrest."

"Is that right?" asked Ferdinand, "May I ask why you believe such a thing."

Dumbledore paused, "His father is Samuel Snape!"

Ferdinand gasped, "I don't believe it!"

"I'm afraid it's true," said Dumbledore, "I was just beginning to think that maybe Samuel had quietened down a bit, come to terms with his unfortunate past. But when his son turned up to Hogwarts two months ago I realised that he had been the victim of some abuse in his past, so Samuel is still violent and frustrated and taking his frustration out on others."

Ferdinand was scribbling something down on parchment, "I think it's important that Snape is found before he can spread his wrath. I'll put top officials onto it right away. Now what is to become of his offspring?"

"He will be heading home in five days for his mother's funeral," said Dumbledore, "He will be with his neighbour overnight and to be honest the more I think about it the more I think that his father might attend the funeral to finish off his offspring. Samuel is violent and he needs a lot of help. I only hope it isn't too late. Severus, that is his son's name, knows that Romulus will be accompanying him on the train, but I want it to be a secret that Romulus will be after him in his animagus form."

"Still not registered I believe?" asked Ferdinand, raising his eyebrows.

Dumbledore smiled, "Well spying on Voldemort would be a lot harder if he knew what to look out for. Do not worry, I can assure you that Romulus does not use his bat form for anything other then work for the Order. If you remember he was supervised by professionals, we just never recorded it!"

Ferdinand laughs, "If you call yourself, me and Nicholas professionals then yes it was. Well Albus, I will have to think about this ward of Hogwarts business, but in the meantime I will be keeping a lookout for Samuel Snape."

"Thank you Charles, and good day to you."

Dumbledore exited the Ministry and with that he was gone.

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**A/N:** FINALLY! I've written this chapter several times but it never seemed to turn out just how I wanted it to. I have to admit I'm still not fully satisfied with the final verdict, but I don't like to keep reviewers waiting and the sooner I finish this chapter the sooner I can start on the next one. Anyways, the next chapter will be the train ride home with Professor Taylor and then the funeral. Will Samuel Snape make an appearance? Wait and see!

_Reviewers_

_Iluska – Never have I seen so many exclamation marks in one review! You must've enjoyed the chapter heaps. Glad you did, and I don't really have anything against Dumbledore. _

_Marauder3eva – James probably won't be stronger then Severus at any point in this story as I intend for Severus to learn a lot of Dark Arts in his time at Hogwarts. As to your question in regards to Severus being punished for using an Unforgivable, I'm pretty sure that I answered it in this chapter. Dumbledore will not inform the proper authorities but will leave Severus's postponed punishment in the hands of Professor Taylor._

Two reviews? I don't mean to sound greedy, but I'd have loved to have had more. I'm going to let it was this time, but in future I want at least three reviews before I submit the next chapter. I know, technically it is three reviews but two of them came from the same person so I don't count that.

**_MSN – atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com_**


	11. Confessions Of Abuse

**CHAPTER ELEVEN – CONFESSIONS OF ABUSE**

Minister Ferdinand found Samuel Snape within the hour, he was taking residence at a room in the Leaky Cauldron. The minister himself questioned Snape Sr. about his involvement in the death of Antoinette Purtwin-Snape, but of course he denied it. He said that he had come home to find his wife's corpse in his house, so he had left, taking his wife's wand with him. He could not be proven of murder, but he could be charged with illegal possession of a wand, as he had been expelled and it would've been illegal for him to carry one.

Less then an hour after his release there was another murder, this time of the Auror that had found Samuel in the Leaky Cauldron. A witness swore under truth potion that they had seen a man fitting Samuel's description stalking the Auror, and then witness him perform the killing curse, but this time Samuel had been a lot more careful. He had not gone back to the Leaky Cauldron, he had vanished.

Ferdinand informed Dumbledore of the cat and mouse game that Samuel was playing on the day Severus was scheduled to go home. Ferdinand had visited Dumbledore at the school to speak with Professor Taylor about him trailing Severus home. While waiting for Taylor in the Headmaster's office, Ferdinand had told Dumbledore everything.

"Now we believe Samuel is responsible for three murders," said Ferdinand, "But of course we could never prove that he killed Darcious Malfoy all those years ago. This last murder, Auror Jack Delongue, he was less careful this time. When he killed Darcious he made sure there were no witnesses. I don't know the full story with Antoinette Purtwin's death, but obviously there were no witnesses there."

The doors opened and in walked Professor Taylor. Ferdinand stood up and shook hands with him.

"We meet again Romulus," said Ferdinand, smiling at the man, "It is nice to see you again."

"Likewise," replied Taylor.

Dumbledore stood up, "So your ready to go then?"

Professor Taylor nodded, "I've put my bag in the storage compartment of the train already. It'll look suspicious if I take a bag with me when I'm only escorting Severus to the train station. I looked up the area in which Severus lives and there doesn't seem to be anywhere I can stay while tailing him, so I think I'll have to stay in my bat form the whole time."

Dumbledore nodded, "Well I'll escort you down to the train. Charles, would you care to escort us then?"

The three men exited the office and walked down the stairs to the Slytherin common room. Professor Taylor had told Severus to wait in there and he'd come and pick him up. He started to wonder if Severus had told his housemates the reason he was leaving, or if in fact he was leaving at all. Professor Taylor felt a pang of sympathy for the boy, and then a pang of anger at Samuel Snape. He had never met Samuel, as he had graduated the year before Samuel had started at Hogwarts, but he was sure that he would hate him.

Dumbledore and Ferdinand waited outside the common room and Professor Taylor went in to find Severus. It was the weekend so there were no classes. All of the Slytherins were down in the common room, messing around and doing things like homework. One quick glance told Professor Taylor that Severus was not among them. He walked past a group of seventh year Slytherins and noticed one hastily rolling his sleeve down. He rolled his eyes to no-one in particular. It was common knowledge that some year 7 Slytherins had already joined the Dark Lord, and received the Dark Mark.

Professor Taylor found Severus sitting on his bed, reading the letter that he'd received from his neighbour. Tears were in his eyes. Professor Taylor knocked on the door and let himself in. Severus quickly stuffed the letter out of view and dried his eyes. Professor Taylor tried to smile at him, but couldn't.

"Ready to go?" he asked.

Severus nodded, picked up his bags, and followed Professor Taylor down the stairs.

Ten minutes later Severus found himself staring out the window of the Hogwarts Express. He had found himself sitting in a compartment that he didn't even know existed, one that was a lot better then the rest. Of course he had only been on the Express once before, but he'd got a good look at it that time so he'd known what to expect. Instead of the seats being red in this one they were blue, and the compartment was a lot bigger then the last one Severus had been in. Professor Taylor noticed his curious expression.

"This is the teachers compartment," he said, "Most of the time when teachers leave Hogwarts they apperate from Hogsmede, but sometimes we find ourselves in situations where we can't do that. So occasionally when a teacher travels aboard the train we use these compartments. I don't think many teachers have been in this compartment for a while."

Severus nodded, then went back to staring out the window. He was still wondering about why Professor Taylor had only taken ten points from him for using the Cruciatus curse. Did this mean he thought it was slightly acceptable, and that he wouldn't mind that much if Severus used it again? Severus grinned, the Cruciatus Curse would make his life at Hogwarts easier. If he could only master it though…he decided he'd have to ask Rudolphus to find him Crabbe & Goyle and let him practise on them. Severus went back to staring out the window, but then felt a rumble in his stomach.

"Would it be possible to get something to eat?" he asked Professor Taylor.

Professor Taylor pointed his wand towards the door of the compartment and said "Accio Food Cart!"

The door burst open as the Food Cart wheeled itself in. This time there was no lady to take money from him for food, so Severus just helped himself to some sweets. He came to realise that most of the sweets on the Cart he had never had before. His mother had purchased him Chocolate Frogs on special occasions, and Severus remembered that his father had used to serve him some of the worst tasting Every Flavour Beans as punishment for small things, like if Severus woke up too early or if he spilt something. He made sure not to take any Beans, he didn't want to relive those memories. Unfortunately Professor Taylor offered him some.

"No thanks!" he said hurriedly. Professor Taylor raised an eyebrow at him.

"My father use to use them to punish me!" he blurted out.

"What?" asked Professor Taylor in horror, almost not believing what he had said.

Severus wanted to snap himself so much after that. How could he have let something like that slip out. _Well_, he thought to himself, _Time for a bunch of awkward questions!_

"What do you mean?" asked Professor Taylor.

Severus sighed, "Well err… once my father made me swallow a bunch of the vomit-flavoured ones when I did something bad. That's it really."

There was a few seconds silence. Then…

"WHAT???" asked Professor Taylor.

Severus almost leapt out of his skin. Professor Taylor forced himself to remain calm. He didn't want to freak Severus out now that he had started to extract some information about his home life from him.

"Do you mean to tell me?" asked Professor Taylor, in a forced calm voice, "That your father has punished you by force-feeding you vomit-flavoured Every Flavour Beans?"

Severus gulped then nodded, Professor Taylor yelled out a mixture of jumbled curse words & sparks flew out of the end of his wand, which he had subconsciously drawn from his robes. He forced himself to relax at the expression on Severus's face, and put his wand back in his robes.

"Did your father ever torture you any more then this?" asked Professor Taylor.

Severus nodded, thinking it was better to be honest with the Potions master, "Yeah he did. He had this kane that he used to hit me with…"

He stopped short expecting the Potions Master to leap up in another outburst, but this time the man was forcing himself to remain calm. Severus could see he had his hand inside his robes on his wand. Severus told him about the kane, and about all the times he remembered his father using it on him. When he had finished, Professor Taylor had a look of pure anger on his face.

"If I ever lay my hands on your father…" he said, and made neck-ringing motions in the air.

"But sometimes I deserved what he did to me-" Severus began but Professor Taylor cut him off.

"No-one deserves what he did to you Severus," said Professor Taylor seriously, "This has to be one of the worst cases of child abuse that I have ever heard of. If I knew where your father was I'd track him down and have a persuasive word with him!"

Severus didn't want to talk about this anymore, so he didn't reply. Instead he reached over for a bag of Every Flavour Beans, plucked one out, and much to Professor Taylor's surprise and mild amusement, popped it in his mouth.

Later that night the train pulled up into Leithbridge Station and Severus picked up his bags to leave. Professor Taylor went and told the driver not to go anywhere, then he escorted him out of the train. Professor Taylor was surprised at how much Severus had revealed to him. He was feeling a little guilty about not telling Severus about the suspicions that Dumbledore and the Minister of Magic had about his father killing his mother. Severus spotted his neighbour at the other end of the station and turned to Professor Taylor to say goodbye. _This is my last chance,_ thought Professor Taylor, _If I don't tell him about the suspicions about his father then when he does hear about it he'll be mad at me for not telling him._

Mr. Laskey had almost reached them, but fortunately a crowd walked in front of him.

"Listen Severus," said Professor Taylor, addressing the boy by his first name again, "We have reasons to think that your father murdered your mother, and after what you told me tonight we are almost sure of it. Your father was in the Ministry's custody for suspected murder but we had no proof so we had to let him go, and now he's killed another Auror and is on the run. We think he might attend the funeral tomorrow, so we have arranged a guard to watch over you. I cannot say much more then that, but just remember to trust any friendly bats who happen to fly into your room at night."

If Severus had any difficulty taking all this in at once he didn't show it. Simply, he said "ok."

"Goodbye Severus," said Professor Taylor, "I expect we shall be seeing each other soon!"

There was a crack, and Professor Taylor was gone.

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**A/N:** Yes I am aware that this chapter was a load of shit, but it's only part one of two chapters. I was going to do the funeral in this chapter as well, but that would've taken longer and I don't like to keep you waiting, as I'm sure you've noticed. Well now that you've read, review please. I won't update until I have a least three reviews, so you better hop to it all of you!

_Reviewers:_

_Iluska – Yes I did model Professor Taylor on the current Severus Snape quite a lot. Samuel will get what he deserves, but you will have to wait for a long time before I get to the point in the story where Severus feels he's strong enough to take him on._

_Sadistra – Liking for child abuse eh? That's certainly…normal. Well if you like child abuse you have come to the right place._

_Widow767 – God I'm such a dunce with typos! Good work in spotting those all by the way._


	12. Going To A Funeral

**CHAPTER TWELVE – GOING TO A FUNERAL**

Later that night, while Severus presumed Jasper Laskey was asleep, he left the house and went next door, to his old home. He knew there was a window around the side that had never locked properly. He walked round to it, opened it and climbed inside. He found his house as it had been the last time he had lived there. He wandered into the kitchen, where Laskey had found the corpse. No-one had tried to tidy up the crime scene much, the kitchen floor still had blood stains all over it. He shivered, and then an idea struck him.

He was alone in his small Leighbridge home, there were no authorities around for miles. Sure it was a wizarding community, but everyone was asleep at this time. Plus most people would be out of town since Christmas was fast approaching, and even his father had left town since he was on the run for murder. Since his father was not here, he might be able to take a look in his secret chambers downstairs.

Severus ran down the steps two at a time and then he came to the chambers. The door was closed! Severus concentrated, and tried to remember the spell that he had learnt to unlock a door or window. His mind went back to his Charms class. What had been the spell? He tried to remember the incarnation for the spell, and then when he came up with nothing he banged his fist on the door. It swung open!

_Note to self,_ Severus thought, _Try opening door before trying to unlock it_.

He walked into the chambers, and was surprised at the size of it. He had expected it to be the biggest room in the house, but it was small, no bigger then Severus's bedroom. There were shelves stacked with books, a desk, and a whole lot of parchment sprawled across it. He went over to the desk and picked up one sheet of parchment. It was a jumble of curses and jinxes, none of which Severus had heard of. He looked at some of the books on the shelf. He gasped out loud!

The whole lot of them were books about the Dark Arts. Severus just had to look at the titles to realise that these books contained a lot of dark magic. His face lit up, this was _exactly_ what he needed. He was hesitant to take them off the shelves at first, but upon realising the whole of Leighbridge was probably asleep, he started to empty the shelf. He also took as much of the parchment as he could. Once he started to learn what the incarnations were for, he would be powerful.

There were so many books that he had to make three trips from the chambers to the window so he could get back to the Laskey house. Once he was at the windowsill he lifted all of them outside and managed to get them to the tree. Then he realised he would have to take them all up to get in his window. He decided to take the risk that Mr. Laskey was asleep. He threw a couple of books into the window, then a couple more, then he tried to stack some on the tree branches. It took more then ten minutes before he had all of them inside the house. Then all he had to do was simply climb the tree and enter. Once he was back in bed he put all of the books into his trunk and went back into his bed.

_That went well,_ he thought to himself, _Not only have I guaranteed myself more knowledge on the Defence Against The Dark Arts, but I just made a trip into my father's chambers and no-one saw me._

Although Severus was very wrong to think he hadn't been seen. For he hadn't noticed the bat perched atop of the tree across the road.

#

The next morning Mr. Laskey was in Severus's bedroom at 7:30am in the morning so he could wake Severus up. He noticed the Dark Arts book that Severus had been reading the previous night and he laughed. It looked like there would be another Samuel running around soon enough. He shook Severus awake and gave him some breakfast.

"We've got the funeral in an hour's time," Mr. Laskey said, "So I've taken the liberty of lending you some of my finest black robes. Do not worry, I have shrunk them a little so that they will fit you."

The robes were hanging on the back of the door. Severus ate his breakfast, showered and he dressed. Then he went downstairs where Mr. Laskey informed him that they would be taking the muggles way to the funeral parlour, train.

"Usually when I have to travel places outside of Leighbridge I apperate," Laskey said, "But of course you cannot apperate so we're going to take the train, since the Knight Bus is out of commission. I must admit that I do respect the Dark Lord very much, but why in the world did he have to attack the Knight Bus?"

Severus knew that just about everyone in Leighbridge was a Dark Lord supporter, some were even Death Eaters. Severus felt a clench of anger when he remembered that his father's life ambition had always been to become a Death Eater. Severus then remembered that he had made his life ambition to join the Death Eaters, and relaxed. He would have to stop feeling such a disrespect towards Death Eaters, since he wanted to be one himself.

Him and Mr. Laskey started the walk toward the train station. Severus remembered that it had been about half an hour's walk since he had walked from it to the Laskey house the previous evening. Behind Severus and Mr. Laskey, a black bat was flying at a slow pace, not wanting to be seen.

Half an hour later Severus and Mr. Laskey arrived at Leighbridge. As soon as the two of them had stepped onto the platform the train came, and Severus & Mr. Laskey boarded it. The bat that had been following them didn't go into the train with them. It went into the toilets, changed into Professor Taylor, and apperated to the funeral parlour to make sure that Samuel had not decided to come.

Once inside the parlour he noticed what a large outcome had come, most of whom had been associated with Antoinette from school. Professor Taylor found most of them were unable to speak the slightest bit of English, so after the third time someone had approached him and learnt that he could not speak French he had been left alone.

After Professor Taylor was positive that Samuel was not here, he decided to go outside for a minute so he could catch his breath. As he was heading towards the door it opened and both Severus and Mr. Laskey walked in.

_Shit!_

Professor Taylor should have realised that changing into his animagus form was not the best idea he could've come up with, but he was so desperate for his cover not to be blown that he had no choice. The sudden disappearance of a man and appearance of another had caused several people that had been standing around the Potions Master to scream. Someone came out of the crowd to shoo the bat out of the hall. Severus caught sight of the bat before it went to rest in the highest ceilings of the church. He remembered what Professor Taylor had said about trusting any bats. Yet he still did not come up with the conclusion that the bat was his Potions Master.

The funeral began. Severus and Mr. Laskey sat in the front row. Professor Taylor sat near the ceiling. He was pretty confident that Samuel had not turned up. Although where he was hiding at the moment, in the highest area of the ceiling, could hide a lot of people. Although one would have found it hard to get up there, one would also have found it possible. So someone had decided to climb up and hide in the ceiling, and even Professor Taylor had not seen him at first. Although when the person hiding pointed his wand at Severus to shout the incarnation to kill him, Professor Taylor noticed him immediately. He changed back into a human.

"Avada-" The hidden person, Samuel had started to say.

"NO!" shouted Professor Taylor. Everyone in the funeral hall looked around. Severus was one of the first to spot Professor Taylor. He started to question the reason that man had come to the funeral, when he noticed one of the few adults who had ever scared him in his entire life. Samuel was hiding up high in the ceiling!

Professor Taylor tackled Samuel, and the man grabbed onto a wooden plank in the roof so he would not fall. Professor Taylor tried to unbalance him, but Samuel kicked him in the chest. It made a strong impact. 

Professor Taylor lost his footing. He slipped from the wooden plank in the ceiling and started to fall to the ground! He was extremely high up, if he hit the floor on the impact that he'd been falling at then he would've died. Fortunately Mr. Laskey himself had shouted a spell to slow the fall quite a bit. When Professor Taylor hit the floor, he lost consciousness.

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**A/N:** I am aware that this chapter was total and utter crap, and will have people scratching at their heads to try and figure out what the hell happened in the funeral scene. Well I'll try to sum it up. Professor Taylor arrived before Severus, walked around to make sure Samuel was not there, transformed into a bat in front of a large crowd, and then flew up into the ceiling. If you have seen Daredevil, then you will remember the fight scene that occurred in the church. In that fight scene Daredevil and Bullseye are fighting in the rafters of a church. Well that is similar to what happened in this last scene, where Samuel almost kills Professor Taylor. Well the place they are fighting is atop wooden planks in the ceiling, which you would be able to walk around on.

If you are really desperate to understand this chapter more, then I recommend that you go out and see Daredevil. I admit, the movie is shit but there is a good fight scene that takes place in a church that will help you to understand this movie more. Now that you've read, review! Try and remember that I only update after three reviews and I respond to every single one.

**_MSN – atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com_**


	13. The New Death Eater

**_CHAPTER THIRTEEN – THE NEW DEATH EATER_**

The funeral hall erupted in screams. People stood up and started running towards the door, knocking themselves over and colliding into each other along the way. Severus slipped away from his seat in the stand and ran over to the unconscious form of Professor Taylor. He had to make it through this, he _had_ to! Suddenly Severus felt a bubbling hot anger towards his father. Not only had he injured one of the only people Severus was starting to care about, but he had ruined his mother's funeral. Samuel was still in the rafters up near the ceiling, Severus would have to get up there if he wanted to fight him. Just as he was thinking about how he was going to do this, a solution presented itself. Samuel jumped to the floor. He looked down upon his son.

"Be thankful that whoever that man was he meddled in my business, because he just saved your life, and made me realise I don't want to kill you just yet. Crucio!"

Severus fell to the ground, he felt blinding pain charge through his body, but despite himself he was wishing that one day he would be able to project such a powerful Cruciatus Curse and use it on his father. He heard footsteps running up behind him, and then heard the incarnation "Stupefy!"

His senses were groggy so he couldn't recognise who had cast the curse, but he suspected it was Laskey. He must've been trying to save Severus from his father. But Samuel had dodged to the left and fired a Cruciatus Curse at Laskey. Now his pain-ringing screams filled the near empty funeral hall. Severus rolled over onto his back and saw the figure of Laskey struggling to throw the Unforgiven Curse off. He had managed to throw it off himself, but the pain was still with him, and he was breathing hard.

Suddenly the doors to the funeral hall burst open and in walked Minister Ferdinand, followed by three men Severus did not recognise. Severus heard his father curse, and before he knew it he had grabbed his hand and apperated!

Severus landed face first onto a hard stone floor, a floor he didn't recognise. He could hear his father's rapid breathing behind him. He tried to roll back onto his back, but his father had just kicked him in the head. The last thing he was aware of was loosing consciousness.

**0o0o0o0o0**

When Severus awoke he was chained to a wall. His shirt had been removed and even in the dark he could see three deep red slash marks running across his torso. So his father had decided to punish him, but for _what_ exactly? Was he not allowed to mourn the fact that his mother had died at the hands of his violent father? Severus was determined not to let tears streak down his face, he knew it would do no mercy from his father, and if anything it would increase the amount of pain his father would cause him upon his return.

He heard someone walking around behind him and realised that he must be in the same room as his father after all.

"You cannot pretend to be asleep Severus, you may not have physically moved but a moment ago your magical signature strengthened so I know are awake."

_Crap_.

His father rolled Severus onto his back. Severus looked up into his face properly. Unshaven, cut and just plain dirty, Samuel had clearly not been looking after himself while on the run. He glared at Severus as if he was some kind of monster, filth that should not be allowed to walk the face of the Earth.

"I came to the funeral hall to kill you Severus," said Samuel, "I was going to kill you as an act of mercy. You are too young and stupid to understand this right now, but believe it or not I was going to do us both a favour by killing you. A lot has happened since you left for that blasted school run by that muggleloving old freak, and I intend to tell you it all tonight, before I torture you senseless. After I have tortured you, I shall allow you to make the choice as to whether or not you want to live!"

Severus didn't like the sound of that.

"When you left for Hogwarts I decided it was time to fulfil my dream. I decided that it was time I made contact with the Death Eaters and told them that I wished to join their ranks. Of course I do have friends in high places, and it did not take me long to locate the Death Eaters. When I told them of my eagerness to join, a few of them put me through a test, which was a very unpleasant experience to say the least. But it was worth it, for the next morning me and two others received the Dark Mark!"

Samuel rolled up his sleeve to reveal the Dark Mark! Severus could hardly believe his eyes. Why in the world would the Dark Lord wish a man expelled from Hogwarts in his third year to join his ranks?

"As you are probably not aware, since being expelled from Hogwarts, I have not given up on trying to fulfil my dream. I have been studying Dark Arts non-stop for years and years on end. Why I am probably more advanced then any of the Death Eaters could ever hope to be. I can be the Dark Lord's right-hand man, I could be the most powerful Death Eater on the face of the Earth. I can make a name in my own right, of course I would be nothing to the Dark Lord but people would never _dare_ to speak the name Samuel Snape without fear ever again! They will leave in fear that I will do to them, as I did to your mother…"

"NO!"

Severus snapped at hearing his father's confession. Deep down inside there had been a _tiny _ray of hope that maybe his father did not kill his mother, that maybe someone else, a Death Eater or someone, had done it as a random attack. But here was the proof of what his father had done.

"I would have fired the Dark Mark into the air above our house, but that would've raised a lot of suspicion," his father said cheerfully, "From now on whenever I kill I will fire the Dark Mark into the air. You have no idea how easy your mother was to kill Severus, it was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have experienced for many years!"

Severus snapped. He wanted to lash out at his father so badly, the anger and hatred that he felt towards this man was something no-one should ever have to experience. His defensive magic aided him, and the chains around his arms broke. He leapt to his feet and then onto his father. Samuel was caught by surprise at the sudden burst of power in the eleven-year old. He put his hands around his neck, he tackled him to the floor and hit his head on the stone ground several times over. His father got his wand out.

"Cru-"

Severus knocked the wand out of his hand. His father was starting to overcome his shock and fight back. Severus removed his hands, and then dashed towards the door. He saw his shirt and his wand lying on a chair next to the door, he picked them up, put his wand in his pocket and raced out the door, putting his shirt over his head as he ran up the stairs. His father was right behind him, and he had the secret advantage for now. Severus had never been in this house in his entire life, his father could easily catch him in here. Severus reached the top of the stairs and was now on the ground floor. He heard a woman scream. He realised that he had been in the basement of a normal house.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" the woman asked, looking very scared.

Severus had no time to answer her. There were four _pops_ and four people, one of whom was Minister Ferdinand, entered the room. The woman screamed again, not use to having five complete strangers in her home. Samuel reached the top of the stairs, and the three people Severus did not recognise fired stunning spells at him. He apperated!

"Not again!" exclaimed Minister Ferdinand.

It would've had to be an understatement to say that Severus was confused. He knew now that his father was on the run, and it was now stating the obvious to call Samuel a murderer, but there were still some things that he seriously wanted cleared up. Minister Ferdinand pointed his wand at the woman and said "Obliviate!" Then he summoned Severus to follow him out of the room.

**#################################################################**

**A/N:** I am really sorry about how long it took to update this chapter, but it took a lot to try and get it right, and I still am not completely satisfied with it. I would try and make it better but I did not want to keep you all waiting for so long. I understand if some people are a little confused about my chapters, and I apologise but I just cannot make them as clear as I like to.

_Reviewers._

_Iluska – Sorry for the Cliffhanger, I have done a few of them so far but I don't make a habit of it don't worry. Professor Taylor is going to be fine, he should be mobile again within two chaps, sorry that there was no Prof. Taylor in this chap. Thanks for reviewing!_

_Sadistra – Yep your right, he did try to kill Prof. Taylor, and I have to admit I am curious to read one of your stories now. Thanks for reviewing!_

_AbbyAbberline – Yep, for each chapter. Thanks for reviewing!_

_Althalui – I am not sure whether I want Severus and Lily to be romantically involved in this, & there might be a little bit of slash on the side, but none involving Severus._

_JackieCaptain – Thanks, I will!_


	14. To Catch A Criminal

**CHAPTER FOURTEEN – TO CATCH A CRIMINAL**

Minister Ferdinand told Severus that he was going to take him back to Leighbridge, and once he was there he would explain everything. Once they were out of the house Ferdinand gave Severus a portkey. He asked if he had ever used one before, and Severus replied that he had once and he'd fallen flat on his face and broken his nose. Ferdinand smiled at him and told him that he would be careful to avoid such a conflict. The three aurors apperated to the house of Laskey in advance, and then Minister Ferdinand took Severus via portkey. Severus put his hand out to touch the portkey, which was a coin, and then Ferdinand activated it. Seconds later the two men found themselves in Laskey household. Sitting at the kitchen table were Dumbledore, the three aurors and Mr Laskey, who looked very shaken up.

"Young master Snape," said one of the aurors, "How kind of you to join us."

Dumbledore smiled warmly at Severus, and Laskey motioned for him to take a seat. They all sat in silence for about ten seconds. Dumbledore started the conversation.

"Charles, Severus has been through a lot today and I believe he deserves an explanation. As I have not heard the fully story yet, I believe that you should be the one to tell it."

Ferdinand nodded.

"Severus," he said, "We have reason to believe that your father is the one who murdered your mother, as well as an Auror who I have known for a long time and was very close with. We do know that he kidnapped you earlier this afternoon and a little later on we will need to ask you if you discovered anything that would help us locate him. First an explanation. We thought it was possible that Samuel would attend your mother's funeral, so we decided upon Professor Taylor to guard over you in case he turned up. Well he did turn up, and he overpowered the man and he has still not come around but we are sure he will be fine."

Severus felt a stab of guilt, he hadn't even stopped to considered that Professor Taylor might have been seriously injured trying to keep him safe. He was relieved that he would be ok, but he still felt guilty all the same.

"Before Professor Taylor lost consciousness, when he was falling through the air we believe, he sent a telepathic message to me and my three most trusted Aurors that had been working on the case to tell us that he was in the funeral hall. We arrived as soon as we could, but he still managed to take you and disappear. For a few hours you were both missing, but then as soon as you left that basement we detected your magical signature and we apperated to the home he was keeping you hostage in. Now comes the hard part, is their anything you know that might help us to find your father?"

Severus thought about it for a minute, then shook his head, "No there isn't, but there is one important thing that I believe you should know. My dad, he _confessed_ to the murder of my mum and also told me that he had joined the Death Eaters. He-" Severus paused, "He told me that he had found pleasure in killing my mum and my defensive magic broke the chains that had been holding me and I lashed out at him!"

Ferdinand smiled a warm smile at Severus.

"Well you handled yourself a lot better then most eleven year olds would've in that situation, I am very proud to say. If he has joined the Death Eaters then we might be able to trace him, as we do have someone watching a well-known associate of Voldemort (**A/N:** This is in the early stages of Voldemort's reign, so people are not yet afraid of him enough that they cannot say his name.) and I'm sure they will attend his next meeting of the Death Eaters. Thank you for telling us this Severus. Do you have any questions about what happened?"

Severus nodded, "If you were able to detect me from my magical signature, then how come you couldn't just find my father in the funeral hall and stopped all of this from happening?"

Ferdinand sighed, "Detecting a witch or wizard's magical signature is extremely complicated, plus someone can block you from detecting their own very easily. People can also seal off rooms so that you cannot detect their signature while they are in the room. The room where your father was keeping you imprisoned had a charm on it so that no-one could detect your signature there. There is a lot more to it then that, but I feel you are too young to understand the rest of it. There are some things that I do not understand about detecting them."

Severus nodded, "And what is Professor Taylor's condition?"

"Non life-threatening," said Ferdinand, "A Healer has had a look at him and has confirmed a rather nasty bump on the head, but nothing too serious. He should be mobilised again within the weak. He has Mr. Laskey here to thank for his life, if that man had not softened his fall he would be dead."

Severus felt a rush of gratitude towards his neighbour. As grateful as he felt at the moment, he hoped that Dumbledore and Ferdinand knew not to speak about confidential business with him, seeing as he was a strong supporter of the Dark Lord (anonymously of course) and both of them had been working against the Dark Lord for many years.

"Anyway," said Ferdinand, "We must be going now. Good day to you all."

Ferdinand and the three aurors apperated out of the room. Dumbledore turned to Laskey.

"Jasper if I could have a private word with Severus for a moment, I promise I will not take up too much of your time nor his."

Laskey left the room, Dumbledore invited Severus to have a seat.

"I must know everything that happened from the moment your father kidnapped you to the moment that Charles and his Auror friends burst in. As long as you are sure that there is nothing else you remember that can help us catch your father, this can wait until we return to school. Are you sure there is nothing else?"

Severus nodded, "I am almost certain Professor Dumbledore."

"Well then I am sure we can continue this conversation upon your return to Hogwarts. I shall send someone to collect you over the weekend, so goodnight Severus, give your regards to Jasper for me."

Dumbledore apperated.

**0o0o0o0o0**

True to his word Dumbledore arranged for someone to deliver Severus back to Hogwarts over the weekend. One of the aurors who had rescued Severus from the house Samuel had held him in, who introduced himself as Alastor Moody, arrived at the house at noon on Saturday to pick Severus up. He then took him to the train station in Leithbridge, put on him a train, and told him that Dumbledore would meet him on the other end.

"You watch out for yourself," Moody growled in a dangerous-sounding voice, and with that he left Severus standing all alone on the platform. Severus was starting to really get when people apperated without a second word. Approximately three seconds later the train pulled up in the station and he couldn't ponder the situation any further.

The train journey for Severus would have been extremely boring, had he not stolen a library's worth of Dark Arts books from his father. If he wanted to project a Cruciatus Curse strong enough to defeat his father and make him cower in pain, then he would have to brush up on his Dark Arts skills quite a bit. When the train pulled up in Hogsmede Station the door opened and Professor Dumbledore walked into the carriage. Severus hurriedly pushed the Dark Arts book he was reading into his trunk. Dumbledore smiled a warm smile at Severus, then with his wand he levitated his trunk out the door.

Him and Severus climbed into a horseless carriage, and then the carriage took off. Soon the pair had arrived in Hogwarts. Severus checked his watch and to his surprise realised that it was midnight! The train journey had taken him twelve hours! This couldn't be right. The olden Headmaster seemed to know what he was thinking.

"You did not travel on the Hogwarts Express, as it is usually only used twice in a year. You travelled on an ordinary train that we requested pick you up. The Hogwarts Express has a time charm on it so that the journey is faster. This is the only train in Britain with a time charm on it, as it would confuse travellers if every train had a time charm on it."

Severus was still mildly confused, but he decided not to say anything. Besides, he was so tired that all he wanted to do was sleep. Dumbledore waved his wand and Severus's trunk disappeared. He told him that it would be upstairs at the foot of his bed. Then he told Severus that he should get some sleep, and he turned on his heel and walked down the hallway. Severus crept up the stairs, into his dorm, and then he was out like a light.

**0o0o0o0o0**

The rest of November passed quickly for Severus, as he was caught up in a lot of school work and stuff like that. On his first day back some of the Slytherins asked him the reason he had left for a week, but Severus had told them it had only been a family thing and that it was not worth worrying about. After that they left him alone. Professor Taylor was back on his feet and teaching again a week after Severus had returned. Severus was doing exceptionally well at Potions, and he was probably the top Slytherin in his group. However the girl who he was now sure he had a crush on, Lily, was still beating him. She was the top of the grade at probably everything.

One Potions lesson in early December, after Severus had made a complicated Potion, Taylor walked past his cauldron and observed it.

"Good work as usual Severus, twenty points to Slytherin and a detention for every day of this week after dinner."

Severus wasn't sure he had heard him right, so after class he stayed back to ask him what he was on about.

"Last month you used an Unforgivable Curse on another student," he said sternly, "You would have been expelled although due to…the circumstances at the time," Taylor took a breath, "I have limited your punishment quite a lot. You are to report back here after dinner for detention and I have not decided what it will be yet. That is all."

**#################################################################**

**A/N:** There we go, another chapter down. I will probably have another chapter up next week, I put two up here because I took so long in the delay. Sorry about that again, but I could not get the other chapter just right. I like this one a little more, even if it is just random events. Ok so that is it for another week I guess.

**MSN – atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com**


	15. The Battle Part One

**CHAPTER FIFTEEN – THE BATTLE – PART ONE**

Later that afternoon Severus walked down to Professor Taylor's private office in the dungeons and knocked on the door. Professor Taylor nodded and him and invited him in to sit down.

"Now Severus, I'm afraid I have some bad news," said Professor Taylor, "It would be illegal to go and live with you father, and we presume he would not want to tag you along with him on the run seeing as your magical signature can be detected, and even though the Minister is on our side to get you classified as a ward of Hogwarts, it would take years to clear this up and in the meantime we would need another guardian for you. Your generous neighbour knows that if he were to take you in then the two of you would have to live in fear for quite some time and he does not want this. So if you do not mind Severus, I have volunteered to be your guardian for the present."

Severus could have leapt out his seat then and there. He could not remember the last time he had felt this relieved. He knew that Professor Taylor cared for him after he had almost been killed at his mother's funeral defending him. Severus cared for his Potions Master as well, and he hadn't wanted him to come to injury in any way. Severus couldn't hide the grin that started to form on his face.

"Unless you have any problems with this of course?" asked Professor Taylor.

"No sir, none at all," said Severus.

"Excellent," said Professor Taylor, "Don't get me wrong but I think that it would be best if you remain at the castle for this Christmas, and you can move in with me in the next holidays. I do have quite a lot of work to do at my home so that it is suitable for a child. Well now it's time for your detention, and I have decided you are to-"

But Professor Taylor stopped in mid-speech. Severus looked up at him, the man looked a bit worried. In complete silence he got out of his seat and crossed to the other side of the room.

"I have to dash off Severus," he said, "We shall continue this detention another time."

Professor Taylor ran out of the hall at top speed. Severus, feeling very confused, reached for his bag and left the dungeons. He returned to his Common Room, threw his bag on his bed and made a start on his homework.

**0o0o0o0o0**

Professor Taylor reached Dumbledore's office and shouted the password. He ran into the old Headmaster's office and caught the Headmaster looking very surprised, he had just been in the middle of signing a document.

"Albus," panted Taylor, "I just got a message from Moody, our well known friend of Voldemort has been called to a meeting, and he was careless enough not to block his magical signature. The Death Eaters are having a meeting on the outskirts of Leithbridge!"

"Leithbridge?" questioned Dumbledore, "Severus's home. Well I'm sure that this must involve Samuel, we've got to get there immediately. Have you sent a message back to Alastor yet?"

Professor Taylor sent a telepathic message back to Moody, _"We need more information."_

A second later, another one came back, _"Use the disillusionment charm, floo over to the train station, then I'll let you pick up my magical signature. You can figure out the rest from there!"_

Professor Taylor frowned, "Albus I will need some floo powder, I have to floo to Leighbridge's train station. I'll also need a disillusionment charm!"

Dumbledore banished a small sack of floo powder to Professor Taylor, preformed the charm of disillusionment on him, and then waved his wand at the fire. The outline of Professor Taylor thanked him, changed into his bat form and flew at the fire. However he told the fire where to go without lips or a speech box Dumbledore did not know. In a few seconds the near-invisible bat had disappeared.

**0o0o0o0o0**

Alastor was watching the Death Eaters from what he thought was a safe distance. He noticed, and his heart skipped a beat, that Voldemort was with them and he was not wearing the hood of his cloak. His red eyes and snake like appearance was enough to frighten anyone of this man. Less then a mile behind him, Professor Taylor was catching up to him in the air. Taylor's bat form could sense Moody was getting closer and closer. He sent a telepathic message to Moody, _"I think I saw your outline for a second, but I can't be sure. Do you think that you could de-activate the disillusionment charm for a split second so that I can be sure if it's you or not?"_

_"No can do Romulus, I am too close to the Death Eaters and I'm sure that they might see me if I do such a thing! Your in bat form I presume, why don't you de-activate yours?"_

_"Have it your way."_

Professor Taylor grounded, transformed into a human, tilted his wand to an angle so it was facing him, and then he had de-materialised. He morphed back into a bat again.

_"Can you see me now?"_

_"Yes I can,"_ Moody telepathically said, _"I'll summon you over."_

Professor Taylor presumed Moody had put himself under a silencing charm so that he could perform charms and curse without the Death Eaters, who were extremely close, hearing him. Taylor felt as if an invisible force was pulling him to the ground, and a second later he realised that it was Moody. As he got closer he could just see Moody's outline. Probably ten metres in front of Moody were the Death Eaters. Moody could only make out a few words of what they were saying. But what made Professor Taylor's skin crawl was the site of Voldemort. He had never come face to face with the man before, never laid eyes on his face with his own.

_"We might have to move closer,"_ Moody telepathically told Taylor, _"I'm going to put you back under the disillusionment charm and we'll edge in."_

True to his word a second later all that could be see of Professor Taylor's bat form was part of the outline. The two members of the Phoenix edged a little closer. Now they could just make out what the Dark Lord was saying.

"…find him if it's the last thing we do. I trust you Samuel to find out if he has a guardian or not, when we do find out who his guardian is see if he can be convinced to join us. If not, then we shall have to kill him. But our main priority is Severus at the moment, we must steal him from the castle and from his guardians…"

With a pang of fear, which he quickly banished from his conscious mind, Taylor realised that the Dark Lord himself was making plans to kill him and steal Severus from the castle. He had to tell Dumbledore this, but he couldn't concentrate on sending a telepathic message then. He decided to do it when the meeting was over.

"Now Samuel," said Voldemort, "Tell us the reason that you chose this location to meet at, as I know it was you who wanted a meeting."

"I came here for unfinished business my Lord," said Samuel, "I want to prove to you how loyal I am by killing an old friend of mine. He is a supporter of you my lord, but he is too much of a coward to join us so he is of no use to us. I hope you do not mind me taking advantage of the Dark Mark to summon us all, I assure you it shall never happen again."

"You shall redeem yourself of imitating me when I see some cold-blooded murder. So tell me about the man you are going to kill."

"Believe it or not my lord this man is an old friend of mine," said Samuel, "I was re-united with him last month at the funeral of my wife and if he had not meddled in my business then it was possible that I could've taken Severus and been away with him before the Minister and his pathetic goons turned up."

Professor Taylor tried to think who he was talking about. The only person he could remember meddling was…himself. Although he had lost consciousness in the first half of the events so someone else could have meddled. He remembered Laskey telling him that Samuel had put him under the Cruciatus Curse when he'd tried to save Severus. Professor Taylor looked at the house across the road. It was the Laskey Household.

_Shit!_

Professor Taylor had to distract the Death Eaters, he had to save Laskey from death. He sent a telepathic message to all of the Order members.

_"Assistance required in Leithbridge, at the home of Jasper Laskey. Voldemort and all of the Death Eaters are here, we must save Laskey before he comes to any harm. Samuel is here and he is out for his revenge!"_

Then he fluttered off Moody's shoulder and changed into a human. He got his wand out, and he pointed it at the Death Eater that he was sure was Samuel. Moody saw what he was doing and his eyes widened.

_"Don't be a fool Romulus, there is nothing we can do until the Order arrives!"_

_"By then it'll be too late. We have to stall the Death Eaters!"_

_"ARE YOU A COMPLETE FOOL ROMULUS! LORD VOLDEMORT IS THERE AND HE WILL KILL US IN A SECOND! I AM NOT BEING A COWARD, I AM USING LOGIC AND LOGIC SAYS THAT WE HAVE TO WAIT FOR REINFORCEMENTS!"_

_"Sorry Alastor, I have to do this!"_

"STUPEFY!"

Samuel fell to the ground, stunned. Voldemort whirled around, and threw a stunning charm at Professor Taylor. The man had predicted that Voldemort would want him alive, so he dropped to the ground and let it soar over his head. His theory had been right, a disillusionment charm did not work on Voldemort. Voldemort looked particularly mad that someone had dodged one of his curses. At the moment it was Voldemort against Professor Taylor, as none of the other Death Eaters could see what was going on. Moody also decided to help him.

"Stupefy, Stupefy, STUPEFY!"

Three Death Eaters fell to the ground, all stunned. Professor Taylor hoped that they would be able to stun the Death Eaters and send them to Azkaban instead of kill them. Ferdinand had given permission to all Aurors and members of the Order to use the Unforgivable Curse in the battle with the Death Eaters, but Professor Taylor wanted to avoid using one if possible.

"AVADA KEDARVA!"

Voldemort was now so mad that he did not care about keeping Professor Taylor alive. He was about to throw another killing curse at Taylor, but at last minute changed his mind and threw the curse to reveal him. The curse hit Taylor and his disillusionment charm wore off. The Dark Lord almost saw his face, but at that moment Professor Taylor changed into a bat. Voldemort smiled an evil smile.

"Big mistake stranger, you would have stood more of a chance in human form. Get him!"

The Death Eaters all threw a chain of spells and jinxes at Professor Taylor. At the moment the Potions Master feared for his life. If he had hoped that Voldemort would forget about Moody then he was wrong, for the elite warrior was now searching for him, throwing charms to reveal him all over the place. Moody's disillusionment charm seemed to have worked a lot better then Professor Taylor's had. Professor Taylor felt a stab of guilt upon realising that the Auror had wanted to wait for reinforcements, and now if he died it would be Taylor's fault. Taylor had to save Moody, an idea was forming in his head, a dangerous idea but one that might work. He would have to distract Voldemort! He hoped the Dark Lord could receive telepathic messages.

"Hey Riddle!"

The bat attempted to dive bomb Voldemort. Taylor could not tell upon the look on Voldemort's face if he was madder at being dive-bombed or called by his former name. All in all he now seemed to have it in pretty bad for the bat.

"HOW DARE YOU!"

The fact that he was making Voldemort so mad brought a small cell of satisfaction to the bat of a Potions Master. Sure, he knew he had no chance of leaving the battle-field alive, but that didn't seem to matter.

"AVADA KEDAVRA!"

To Taylor's surprise it wasn't Voldemort nor one of his Death Eaters that he thrown the curse, it had been Moody. It seemed that the young Auror wasn't about to give up on his life so soon or at least not without a fight. Moody's killing curse took Voldemort by surprise, although he had still somehow blocked the curse. Although he had used so much of his power blocking it that Professor Taylor could sense his magical signature was weakening, Voldemort was not even bothering to block people from sensing his signature.

It was his signature that frightened Professor Taylor more then anything. This was the highest he had ever sensed, not even Dumbledore's signature could compare to this in strength. He knew that Voldemort would have to be mighty powerful to cause the fear that he did, but he had never pictured him to be this powerful. No wonder Dumbledore was worried about taking him down now before he became a threat, he was quite a threat already.

If this is his signature after just blocking the killing curse, I'd hate to come across him at full power, thought Professor Taylor.

Suddenly, the entire street rang out in curses. The rest of the Order had arrived, and were all duelling with the Death Eaters now. Professor Taylor and Moody were now not alone, and yes they would not be able to bring down Voldemort but at the moment chances of managing to overpower the Death Eaters were looking pretty good. Professor Taylor just hoped that they didn't all apperate away. He would have to help the Order, but he was useless in bat form. He had to hide and change.

"You are not going anywhere my bat friend!" snarled Voldemort, "Crucio!"

The Unforgivable hit Professor Taylor and his wings gave out under the pain! The snake-like figure that was Lord Voldemort was now looking down on Professor Taylor.

"This is the end of you bat!" he sneered, and raised his wand, "Avada-"

The next few seconds were a blur. Voldemort never got the last part of the curse out because something knocked him down at the moment. Voldemort had let his guard down yet again, & a member of the Order had tried to stun him. Voldemort might've blocked the curse at the last second, but it still had an impact. Professor Taylor tilted his head to the side to see who he owed his life. Albus Dumbledore himself was standing in front of him, the familiar twinkle in his eyes gone and a look of blazing fury upon his face. This was Professor Taylor's chance, he changed into his human form and drew his wand.

The real fight was about to begin.

**0o0o0o0o0**

**A/N:** I have to admit, I had a load of fun writing this chapter. It's the longest so far, this is the first time I have ever done one that passed three pages, and this one is five. This is only part one, and I'm pasting this in two parts, so if you've just finished reading this chapter don't go away because there will be another one after it!

-ATOM


	16. The Battle Part Two

**CHAPTER SIXTEEN – THE BATTLE – PART TWO******

Severus was thrilled about the news that Professor Taylor was going to temporarily adopt him and this didn't dampen his mood for the rest of the evening. He had been to known to feel a little antisocial at the end of the day, and usually after classes and dinner Severus would go upstairs to write in his diary. But tonight he didn't feel like being alone, he felt like taking advantage of his good mood, as he was sure that it would not last. While he would never call Lucius, Rudolphus, Bellatrix, Narcissa, Mcnair, Crabbe, Goyle and Andromeda friends, he did get along ok with most of them so he decided to hang out with them in the common room.

"Well this is a surprise," said Rudolphus when Severus took a seat across from him, "Usually you're too good to hang out with us and just go upstairs and hang on your own!"

Severus shrugged, "It's no fun being alone anyway."

Lucius and Rudolphus, who appeared to be the ring leaders of the Slytherins, welcomed him with open arms. Severus had made quite a name for himself when he beat James Potter in a duel, and Potter was still getting it rubbed in his face by the Slytherins. Severus was proud of beating a Gryffindor in a duel, and it seemed that after doing this the Slytherins had accepted him as part of them. So they allowed him to hang out with him.

This particular evening Rudolphus was telling them all about his father's "secret business," as a Death Eater. Severus was listening with a rapid heartbeat. He wondered if Rudolphus had heard anything about new members in the Death Eater circle. When he started to go off the topic, Severus decided he had to ask him.

"So Rudolphus," he said, "You heard anything about new Death Eaters joining the circle?"

Rudolphus thought for a second, and then nodded, "Yeah I think that there are three or four new members. Actually, now that you mention it, my father did mention something about this being their first meeting of the new members and that one of them is going out to some old wizarding town to finish some unfinished business with an old foe or something like that. My father doesn't like to state obvious facts in case our letters get lost."

Severus nodded, "Don't suppose you remember the name of the town or anything?"

"Yeah, it was Leithbridge!"

Severus's heart skipped a beat, his father was going to Leithbridge, his home town, to get his own back on Laskey for interfering at the funeral, Severus was sure. His stomach rolled over. His father's wrath was beginning.

**0o0o0o0o0**

In Leithbridge, the battle between the Death Eaters and members of the Order of the Phoenix had grown quite serious. There had been a few casualties, but neither of them had been from the Order of Death Eaters. The street in Leithbridge in which they were all battling lay in ruins, wrecked houses everywhere. People who had been inside the houses when the Death Eaters had brought them down had been killed. Professor Taylor, Moody and another Auror called Kingsley Shacklebot were working as a shield to protect Laskey's home. Professor Taylor had not been able to send a message out to Laskey to warn him to evacuate, but he hoped that the man had left his house for fear of his life already.

"CRUCIO!"

The Cruciatus Curse hit Shacklebot, he dropped to the ground in pain. The same Death Eater that had cast the spell shot another one at Moody, and he dodged this one. Professor Taylor had so far managed to avoid a spell from this Death Eater, and he rolled over to throw a spell at him. But the Death Eater send a banishing charm at him, and Professor Taylor flew backwards. The Death Eater was now running at him to finish off the job, and Taylor could not reach his wand. He didn't know what to do, if he changed into a bat then this would mean that his cover was blown and Voldemort would be on his tail for earlier antics. Fortunately when the Death Eater caught up with him he did not use his wand. He grabbed Professor Taylor by the collar.

"You look familiar!" the Death Eater sneered.

Professor Taylor glared into the slits for eyeholes that the Death Eater had in his mask. He wanted to know who this was. His hands moved in a flash, he pulled the mask of the Death Eater off. It was Samuel Snape. Samuel sneered at him.

"I'll finish the job this time, but I won't use my wand until I need to."

Then the man head-butted Taylor in the face! Taylor fell backwards, he could feel blood was gushing out of his nose, and suspected that Samuel had broken it. He looked around on the ground, his wand was no-where to be seen. Well if he couldn't defend himself with his wand, there was only one other way.

THWOCK!

When Professor Taylor's fist collided with Severus's face it made a sound similar to a tennis ball hitting a hard surface! Samuel stumbled back, and put his arm up to guard Taylor as he attempted to high kick him. Taylor brought out his hand and hit Samuel in the side of the head hard! The Death Eater fell back and wasn't quick enough, Professor Taylor snatched his wand out of his hands.

"Crucio!"

Professor Taylor was letting his hatred overcome him. He wanted to cause Samuel pain for what he had done to Severus. He wanted to cause the man pain that the Cruciatus Curse could not achieve. He put his wand between the Death Eater's eyes.

"Avada-"

"_Accio wand!_"

The wand in Professor Taylor's hands flew out of it, and into the outstretched arm of Moody.

"Stupefy!"

Samuel's form slouched over, unconscious. Moody took one good look at him then at Taylor and it didn't take a genius to realise that the two of them had been in a physical fight. Taylor's robes were stained with blood, his face was seriously bruised and the collar of his robe was torn. Samuel was in a similar state. Moody glanced at Professor Taylor.

"Is this Samuel Snape?"

Professor Taylor nodded. On top of all the pain he was feeling he was also embarrassed that Moody had caught him about to murder a man when his guard was down. Professor Taylor hoped that Moody didn't have the wrong idea about him now, he had allowed his temper to overcome him but he hadn't meant to kill Samuel. He just wanted to cause him intense pain, revenge for what he had done to Severus. Professor Taylor looked at the remains of where the Order and Death Eaters had been fighting. Building remains lay all around them, and with a pang of fear Professor Taylor realised that the Laskey household had been completely demolished. With another pang of regret, Samuel spotted the Dark Mark hovering above!

Professor Taylor cursed. He turned around to grab Samuel's corpse before it disappeared & saw a Death Eater had grabbed it and was trying to get away.

"**NO!!!!**"

Professor Taylor couldn't let Samuel escape _again_ under their noses. He pointed his wand at the Death Eater to stun him. Unfortunately the unknown Death Eater took that chance to get out of there, and he apperated, taking the unconscious form of Samuel with him!

**0o0o0o0**

It was around three in the morning when Severus and the rest of the Slytherins went up to get some sleep. Severus was still in a good mood, despite the fact that he was positive the Death Eaters were after his ex-neighbour. He didn't exactly like Laskey, to Severus he was nothing but a non-violent version of his father, but that didn't mean he wanted the Death Eaters to go & and get him. After tossing and turning he decided he would have to go and tell Dumbledore what he had heard. He had a fair idea where Dumbledore's office was, so he headed in that direction.

He came to the stone gargoyle and then realised he didn't know the password. He did not know what to do. Fortunately at that moment the gargoyle opened from the other side and out walked Dumbledore and Professor Taylor walked out. Severus gasped at Professor Taylor's appearance, his robes held traces of dry blood and there was clear bruising all over his face!

"Professors Dumbledore, Taylor…" Severus began.

Dumbledore smiled at Severus, "Now I should think you should've learnt to go to bed at your regular time by now Severus. I presumed since you were right outside my office you had to tell me something."

Severus nodded, "I heard some of the people in the common room talking…I think that there is going to be an attack on Leighbridge tonight!"

Professor Taylor made an angry sort of noise and pounded his fist on the wall. Severus leapt out of his skin at his sudden outburst. Dumbledore shot Professor Taylor a confused look, and then he told him to get to bed. Then he invited Severus into his office. It was the first time that the student had ever been in Dumbledore's office, and he couldn't tare his eyes away from his surroundings. Dumbledore invited him to have a seat. It was a moment before either of them spoke.

"Severus," said Dumbledore sternly, "I want to know that this information is in safe hands, and that tomorrow morning half of the Slytherin house will not know about it. Don't take this the wrong way but I did just enter your mind and I believe you can be trusted with such info. For starters, we knew about the attack in Leithbridge probably an hour before it happened, and unfortunately we were unable to stop the Death Eaters from carrying out their mission. When the battle was cleared, we found the corpse of Jasper Laskey. I am so sorry for this loss, I am aware that you have lost more then one person close to you in the last few months. This is never easy, once again I am sorry."

Severus felt a pit drop in his stomach. _"No…"_

Dumbledore continued with his story, "This is the part that I hope you will keep secret from all of your fellow Slytherins. Your father was at the battle, as you are aware he is a Death Eater, and him and Professor Taylor came face to face. That is how Professor Taylor received all of those bruises and injuries, although it is safe to say that he gave as good as he got. We were not able to catch Samuel, but wherever he is you can be rest-assured we will find him soon. Unfortunately a lot of Death Eaters we fear will be moving into hiding after this so it will not be as easy to trace the location of one of their meetings."

Severus, who was now feeling quite numb after learning about his ex-neighbour, started to feel sick. He felt like he was going to throw up, but was afraid to tell Dumbledore because he did not want to open his mouth. Dumbledore seemed to understand, because he summoned Severus a bucket. Ten minutes later, after Severus had puked his brains out, he was feeling a little better. Dumbledore waved his wand and the bucket emptied. After this Dumbledore told Severus he had better go to bed, and when his office was empty he turned around in his chair and sighed.

After what Moody and Professor Taylor had told him tonight, he knew that Professor Taylor would not be able to take Severus as his guardian. Severus might never be able to leave the school unless he was among the Order for a long time, now that Voldemort was out for him. If he was to go and live with Professor Taylor then he would be risking the life of the Professor at risk and as strong and powerful as Professor Taylor was, he would never be able to match the strength of Voldemort and his Death Eaters combined.

He sighed again. Professor Taylor had been so eager to take Severus in, and now it seemed that it would be a long time before this could happen. He hadn't told Severus as of yet, after he had received the disturbing news of his ex-neighbour's death, he decided to wait until the next week. He guessed that now Severus would have to become a ward of Hogwarts. He'd have to think this case through overnight.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

**A/N:** This chapter went over three pages as well, whoa maybe I can get into the habit of doing longer chapters. Apologies for updating so quickly, I don't want people to think that I always do it so quickly. Usually it takes me about a week to get new chapters up because I always try to make them as perfect as possible. I didn't feel the need to do that with the last two, I feel that they just pretty much wrote themselves. I'm not sure how long the next chapter will take to write, I'll go off and start it as soon as I can.

_Reviewers,_

_Iluska – Glad you've taken a liking to Professor Taylor, he is obviously the main role model in Severus's life and I feel the two of them have an extremely strong resemblance. Severus will get his revenge on his father, and when he does I am going to enjoy writing it!_

_Althalui – I am pretty sure you can apperate when you're holding onto someone, maybe I was wrong. Severus' chest went up the stairs to his dorm, not to his common room and towards the end of Book 5 Dumbledore activated a portkey with a command to take Harry back to his office, although usually they are done with a command, so we were both right on that one._

_Sadistra – I went and checked out your "Like Father, Like Son," and it was pretty good for a one-shot. I don't usually like one-shots that much. _

_JettaSnape – Glad you like the story, don't worry about having to review. Just as long as you are reading and enjoying that should be enough for me…although I do admit I would like it if you reviewed a little more. _

**MSN/Email – atom(underscore)rocks(at)hotmail.com**


	17. Christmas

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN – CHRISTMAS 

Dumbledore's decision not to tell Severus that he would not be able to live with the Potions Master plagued on his mind for the rest of the month. He knew that he was making a mistake not telling Severus for so long, and he knew that Professor Taylor would have told him after the battle if it had been up to him, but Dumbledore and Professor Taylor were very different from each other. Professor Taylor always believed in telling the truth as to gain Severus's trust, but Dumbledore did not want to burst his bubble. Severus had such a hard life, and the events of recent (his kidnapping and his mother's murder) made Dumbledore want to protect him from any more pain, sadness and disappointment for as long as possible. He knew that it was a promise to himself he would never be able to upkeep, but he was trying his best.

Christmas Eve came and Dumbledore knew he had to make a decision soon. He decided he would tell Severus after Christmas, but before New Year. He did not want Severus to start off in the New Year with false hope. He wondered if perhaps he should tell Severus the reason he could not go and live with Professor Taylor, that his father and Voldemort had decided that Professor Taylor was a threat.

_I better tell him that,_ he thought to himself_, he will find out eventually and it's best that he does not hear it from some random Death Eater's son and rather from Romulus or myself._

Then a thought hit him. It was possible that Severus knew about this already, after all the teen had found out about the Death Eater attack from the children of the Death Eaters, and the headmaster knew that most of the junior Slytherins would use this kind of information to upset someone if they wanted or had to.

_Be reasonable Albus,_ he told himself, _No Death Eater is likely to tell his son this must info in a letter in case it ended up in the wrong hands._

He forced himself not to think about it, but for the rest of the morning that thought plagued the back of his mind. Dumbledore decided he would tell Severus the day after Christmas just to be on the safe side. He knew that most of the Death Eaters' children had gone home for the holidays, so Severus would probably be the only 1st year still at the castle for the holidays.

December 26 he would tell him.

**0o0o0o0o0**

Christmas morning came and Severus didn't bother to wake up early. Who would he have to send him a present? So when he did wake up at around eleven, he was surprised to find two presents at the foot of his bed. Curious as to who the presents would have come from, he reached out and picked one up. There was no card, so he unwrapped it. It was a broomstick! Severus gasped. Who would have sent this to him, who would've cared enough? He noticed a scrap of paper.

First years are not allowed to try out for the Quidditch team, but I felt that you would need a hobby to take your mind off things. You can still practise on the Quidditch pitch when it is not being used. I strongly suggest that you take up flying as a hobby, it can be a lot of fun.

_- Professor R. Taylor_

_Of course,_ thought Severus to himself, _He'd be the only one to send me a present if I was to get any at all._

So now he was wondering who the second one was for. He picked it up, this one also had no card to it. Inside there was a book of spells, not like the Dark Arts spells that he'd stolen from his father, these were basic duelling spells. He was still reading the Dark Arts books he had from his father, but this book looked interesting as well so he wasn't going to just ignore it. He put it under his pillow, still wondering who it was from.

He was starting to feel a little homesick and depressed. He remembered in the last letter he had received from his mother, in which she had been talking about plans to meet up with him for Christmas in Hogsmede. His mind flashed back to his last encounter with her, where she had been telling him to hurry onto the train otherwise he would miss it. This was not the way he had wanted to farewell his mother like. Tears started to well in his eyes, but he wiped them away.

He decided to go outside. He put on some of his warmer clothes and walked onto the grounds to sit at the edge of the frozen lake. It was cold outside, and snow reached as far as he could see. He wished that there were some more people here so he could start a snowball fight or something like that. He sat at the end of the lake, lost in thoughts. Part of him was curious as to who had sent him that spells book. Another part of him was sad that he was not spending Christmas with his mother. He heard footsteps behind him and turned around to see one of his arch enemies, Sirius Black, had come down to the lake. Black glared at him.

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at home with your family?" he sneered.

Severus forced himself to remain calm. As much as he hated Black, punching him out would not help him in anyway, and he knew if he was involved in one more duel then his punishment would be a lot worse then a detention. He decided to control himself by answering Black's question.

"I don't have a family. Shouldn't you be with yours?"

Black looked somewhat surprised that he had answered his question. His hate for Severus was put aside for a few seconds.

"My family is full of dark wizards who now hate me now that I am a Gryffindor. Thought seeing as you are in a house with that bitch of a cousin I have Bellatrix, I am sure that you knew that already."

Severus noted with amusement that Black did not like Bellatrix either. He never would have guessed as much. Putting aside their "differences," for a moment, Black sat down next to Severus at the lake.

"I still hate you," said Black.

"The feeling is mutual," replied Severus.

The two of them sat in silence for a long time, neither one wanting to make conversation, just in case they said something offensive and their unspoken Christmas truce ended. Severus remembered the fight he'd had with Potter last month. After that fight his hate for him was a lot more minimal, he guessed that he felt like the fight had been his revenge on him. Revenge for what exactly? Severus could not even remember the reason he hated Black and Potter, he supposed it was because he had been trying to make friends with Lucius at the time he had met the two of them, and his father had taught him not to mingle with mudbloods and muggle-lovers. But what was so bad about them anyway?

Since his mother's death Severus had slowly been starting to doubt what his father had raised him to believe (if you can call it raising) and apart from mudbloods having families who were non-magical he could not see anything wrong with being one of them. He decided that from now on he would try to tolerate them more.

"Well I'm going to eat lunch," Black said finally, and he stood up and left Severus alone in his own thoughts.

**0o0o0o0o0**

The Great Hall was full of celebration for Christmas. Not many people had stayed at Hogwarts for the celebration, in fact Dumbledore had never seen such a small crowd for a long time, but he was still determined to spread cheer. He had charmed the house tables to make one great big one, as there was such a small crowd that there was no point in having everyone sitting apart from each other. The headmaster looked down the teachers table. Professor Taylor had not bothered to turn up. He had gone home a week early but had promised Dumbledore that he would be back within the week before Christmas.

He decided if Professor Taylor was not back by tomorrow, he would travel to his home to see if he was alright. Voldemort might be after him, but he was sure as hell that he would not get caught. Professor Taylor was possibly the most advanced member of the Order, he knew all of their disguise techniques, he could block his mind off from anyone and he was the one who had been in the Order the longest, being the one who had recognised Voldemort as a threat when he had first started out. Professor Taylor may be young, but he was very wise.

Dumbledore looked over the one table in the Great Hall. Severus was sitting alone, as usual. He remembered that he had to tell Severus to meet him in his office later on. The headmaster walked over to him at his seat.

"Evening Severus," he said, "How is your Christmas going?"

"Very well sir," he replied.

"First thing tomorrow I want to meet with you in my office. The password is tenpin bowling. I will see you then I expect, Merry Christmas."

**#################################################################**

**A/N:** Yes that was a short chapter, and I am almost in the habit of writing longer ones so just give me a little more time and they shall become longer. I'm losing control of this story a little and forgetting my main plot. For the last few chapters I have just been seeing where I can go with things. But I'll try to get back to the plot I have in my head soon. Lately I've been having fun while I write this :D

_Reviewers_

_Althalui – I decided the telepathic ability is common among all members of the Order, and I'm glad you liked the fight scene._

_Iluska – Once again, glad you've taken to Professor Taylor so much as he is one of the main characters in the story and vital to Severus's future. Speaking of updates I don't mean to sound impatient but I am starting to get impatient as to when your going to update yours :P_

_Sadistra – Umm…thanks :D_


	18. The Solution

**CHAPTER EIGHTEEN – THE SOLUTION**

When Dumbledore stepped into Professor Taylor's home the next morning, he knew that he should not expect a warm welcome. It was not that Romulus was mad at him, it was just that the Potions Master had not been his best since the last Death Eater battle. Dumbledore knew he blamed himself for letting Samuel Snape escape from the battle in Leithbridge, and it was putting him on edge all the time. When Dumbledore stepped into Professor's home the next morning, he found that Professor Taylor had taken a lot of his anger out on his surroundings, objects such as chairs, tables, portraits etc. Bookshelves lay overturned, books scattered all across the floor and broken glass was everywhere. When Dumbledore stepped into Professor Taylor's home the next morning, he found his long-time friend in a bad temper.

Dumbledore had a lot of experience with how to deal with this. He'd always felt that breaking and destroying things was non-surprisingly a good way to calm one down, and it seemed that Professor Taylor had been doing that all through the night. When Professor Taylor saw that the headmaster had turned up, he dropped the book that he had been ripping the shreds out of and he collapsed onto his knees.

"Romulus you need to stop blaming yourself," said Dumbledore, "It was not your fault that the man escaped, and don't worry we will get him eventually."

Taylor shook his head, "It's not that."

"Well then what is it?" asked Dumbledore.

Taylor got to his feet, went over to one of the couches that he had not demolished, and he sat down in it.

"I know you still haven't told Severus the full story about the battle in Leithbridge, and yes I'll admit that I have been a little out of character since then. But that is partly your fault!"

Dumbledore was confused to say the least, but didn't say anything. He waited for him to finish talking.

"You should've told Severus the moment we got back from Leithbridge. Albus you've no idea how heavily this has plagued on my mind since then! I have been worried about his reaction to this after sensing how hopeful he was that he was going to have a real guardian that would not torture him with the fucking Cruciatus Curse! Now he's going to be let down yet again, & I do not want to be the one to let him down, even if it was you who volunteered to tell him. Do you not understand how much this can affect him Albus? The disappointment might turn him into a completely different person! I have had a lot of time to think about this because of your continued need to put off telling him, and my imagination has been running wild with this for a long time!"

Dumbledore sighed, there was no easy answer to this. Their situation was not fair.

"What do you suppose we do Romulus?" asked Dumbledore, "I was actually going to tell him today but now I am not so sure. If we really think about it, we must be able to somehow make Voldemort not be able to get Severus."

Professor Taylor looked up, "Yes that is possible, but we would have to rid of Samuel. If we did that then I'm sure that Voldemort would not bother with Severus, he would have no reason to."

Dumbledore shook his head, "I was actually thinking of a charm that would protect you and him so that no-one would be able to find you except for the secret-keeper of the spell, and I'd perform it for you when you wish to stay for Severus to stay with you. It's called the Fidelius & is fairly advanced magic, it has been rarely performed. What do you think of that."

Professor Taylor was on his feet in a minute. A glint of hope was forming in his eyes, and he was looking happier then he had in a long time. A smile broke out on Dumbledore's face and he was almost angry at himself for not coming up with the plan before. He had been so easy to dismiss Severus's hopes like that. Well, now there was a solution.

**0o0o0o0o0**

Dumbledore had to leave Professor Taylor's home quickly after that in order to arrive back at the castle for his meeting with Severus. He was fashionably late, and found Severus waiting for him outside his office. He smiled at him.

"Sorry I am late, I have just come back from a meeting with Professor Taylor. Would you like to come into my office for a moment?"

Severus nodded, followed him in and took a seat. Dumbledore took his regular seat and set his face to stern.

"Before this morning it was looking like Professor Taylor would not be able to adopt you as it would be dangerous for him for reasons that I am unable to disclose. But I have come up with a solution to the problem, although it will limit your freedom outside your home with Professor Taylor for the time being. Are you are of the Fidelius charm?"

Severus shook his head, although the incarnation sounded familiar.

"No I daresay you are not. It is commonly unknown and very rarely used. This is quite hard to explain but try and understand. The Fidelius charm is a spell that you use to hide someone from all but one person. Say I wanted to hide you and Professor Taylor from the Death Eaters then we would use this charm. The only people you would be able to make contact with would be those who the charm would let you. So I would let you and Professor Taylor get together later to discuss that. Unless you have any problems with that?"

Severus shook his head.

"Excellent. Any questions?"

"Does my father know that Professor Taylor is adopting me, and is that the reason we have to use the Fidelius charm?"

Dumbledore sighed, "Not at the present he does not, but Voldemort has ways of finding things out and I'm sure that in time he will have learnt the truth. The Dark Lord works in mysterious ways (**A/N:** Never heard dat before, lol) and sooner or later he will have found out the truth no matter how hard we try and hide it from him."

"So are you saying that you have no secrets from the Death Eaters?" asked Severus.

"Well some things are better guarded then others," said Dumbledore "Although I'm afraid that I cannot tell you those things, it would be wrong for someone so young to have to know what Voldemort does to torture people. Well Severus, you are dismissed. Classes will resume as normal just after New Year, enjoy the rest of your holidays."

**0o0o0o0o0**

Professor Taylor returned to Hogwarts later that evening, after doing his best to restore his home to it's best after his temper tantrum. He was so relieved that he would be able to adopt Severus after all, he had only known the boy since September but he felt a special bond with him. He felt that Dumbledore didn't give Severus enough credit, and the fact that the boy used a Cruciatus Curse effectively was rather impressive, plus his skills at duelling would make him an impressive member of the Order of the Phoenix when he was older, presuming of course that he did not turn to Voldemort.

When Professor Taylor went to Dumbledore's office to formerly apologise for the state of his house when the headmaster had stepped in, he found the man stern-faced and looking a lot older then he had in a long time.

"Is something wrong Professor?" he asked. 

Dumbledore nodded, "I am afraid so. It seems that a minor Death Eater attack broke out this morning in Manchester, and the casualties included one Death Eater and one member of the Order of the Phoenix. The Death Eater is yet to be identified, and unfortunately it was Ulysses Podmore who was a casualty of that battle."

Professor Taylor sat down at Dumbledore's desk and put his head in his hands. Ulysses had been a close and personal friend of his. Dumbledore reached under the desk and pulled out a bottle of firewhiskey. He took out two glasses, cracked the bottle and offered Professor Taylor a glass, which he accepted. The two men took a toast.

"To Ulysses Podmore, who died in the battle against Lord Voldemort."

**0o0o0o0o0**

The rest of the Christmas holiday dragged out for Severus. Being stuck in his dorm alone with no-one to talk to didn't appeal to him much, and the alternative of freezing himself outside in the snow was quite appealing but he didn't feel like he belonged out there with others. The few people who had stayed over the holidays were constantly outside building snowmen and having snowball fights with one another, and Severus did not feel welcome to join in. So he would stay upstairs and read his dark arts books.

He still had the spell book that someone, Dumbledore he suspected, had sent to him over the Christmas break but he hadn't bothered reading past the first few chapters. The spells and stuff in it seemed kind of minor to him after reading all the Dark Arts books that he owned in his possession.

He was also aching to go out onto the Quidditch Pitch and test out the broom that he had got from Professor Taylor. He'd run into Professor Taylor a few times in the hallway and the man had told him that he was looking forward to having him around his house, and he had also told Severus that during the holidays he would allow him to refer to him on first name basis. Severus was feeling so grateful to Professor Taylor for everything the man had done for him that he felt the need to repay him somehow.

One afternoon when Severus was sitting in his dorm, reading a book he had taken from his father's possession he heard a tapping at his window. He glanced towards it to see an owl outside, tapping against the window with it's beak. Severus knew that the chances of it being for him were minimal, but since he was the only one staying in his dorm at the moment whom else could it be for. The owl was carrying a book sized package, Severus untied it from it's legs and opened it. It was a little plan black book, with a note attached.

_When I was younger I used to keep a journal to help me with my pensive thoughts. I found in the end it was a great deal of help, and I am grateful that I was ever lucky enough to stumble across such a privilege. These days I have found another way to store my thoughts so I do not need a journal anymore. Although I feel that maybe you could benefit from Severus. Use it well._

_- Albus Dumbledore_

**#################################################################**

**A/N:** _I know this was a pretty stupid place to end it, but I didn't want to wait any longer before I put another chapter up. I'll try and have another chapter up before the weekend is over. The good news is that I'm now on holidays so updates should be a lot more frequent. _

_Reviewers – _

_Althalui – Glad you liked it, the book was from Dumbledore and it was an early attempt of his to try and steer Severus away from Voldemort, as he knew that with his horrendous past he would find joining the Death Eaters tempting in later life._

_Sadistra – Don't worry you don't scare me. If anything you should be scared of me._

_The FairCritic – Umm, I feel really stupid for asking this but are you the author of the story Golden Opportunities who I emailed asking for another review?_

_Ennui – I love it when people paste comments about the faults of my story because I get to reply to them, and I'm not being sarcastic I seriously do love doing this for some warped reason._

_- Snape's character builds in the story, for the moment I am modelling him a little on Harry, not much but a little, because I feel that there are some noticeable likenesses between the two of them in the books. I believe with all the pressure under Harry he might start to become a little more like Severus with age, and do you think that if he was teaching at Hogwarts and Draco Malfoy's son came that he'd be nice to him?_

_- Snape does know a lot about dark arts, even though he does not know much about casting spells. As I showed before he knew how to use the Cruciatus Curse when that is something that Harry did not learn until his fourth year._

_- You feel one way about Slytherins, I feel another. Let's just leave it at that._

_- I'm not going to be modest, I know a write a better fic then a lot of other thirteen year olds would, and I have never been known for making petty mistakes such as confusing "one," and "won," and even now I am surprised that I did that when I haven't done it since I was in year 3 or something like that. I write a lot of these chapters late at night, in fact at the moment it is 10 o'clock, so maybe I just do that out of lack of sleep._

_Iluska – Thanks for driving all these people to read my fic again. I'm glad that you still like it._

_Correction Freak – I did know that, but forget when I wrote that chapter. I fixed it up after that introduction chapter, after another reviewer pointed out the mistake._

_Viorica – Voldemort survived the curse because he deflected it, if it had hit him on full force he would've been dead. Yes I will go on writing this fic, as long as there is still blood in my veins. _

_TheStarsBright – No problem, glad you liked it._

_SnitchPup – In book 5 Ron was going out to use the Quidditch Pitch before he tried out for the Quidditch Team on his own, so yes it is open to students. There are various scenes in the books where people have had to levitate unconscious bodies, so yes bodies can be levitated._

_Alcapacien – No problem, glad you liked it._

**_Well those were the most reviews I have ever had after one chapter, and it took me a long time to reply to them all, and I loved it. I want even more after this chapter, while I am aware it is not as good as the last one I don't care._**


	19. Gone Away

**CHAPTER NINETEEN – GONE AWAY**

_My name is Severus Snape,_

Severus paused. He had no idea what he should put in his diary. When he was younger his mother had use to pester him to keep a journal, and for a while he even had but he had given it up after a while. He tried to remember what he had written for the first chapter. His mother had told him that it was supposed to be an introduction chapter, then he start writing in his daily events and fill in the stuff he'd missed along the way. He thought about what he should put for a minute, then it started to come to him.

_I don't know why I'm writing in here. I just got sent this journal and I decided that maybe I'd try it out for a while. I use to keep a journal when I was a lot younger, and my mum told me that the first chapter was suppose to be an introduction of me. Well here goes. At the moment I am attending Hogwarts, and it's near the end of the Christmas holidays. I'm the only person in my dorm who remained over the holidays and I'm kind of bored._

_I couldn't have gone home if I'd wanted to, seeing as at the moment charms are being put into place so that I can be adopted by a Professor at this school called Romulus Taylor. He will be adopting me because my mother was recently killed by my Death Eater father._

Severus had a lot of difficulty in admitting the next part, even on paper. He wondered how safe his diary would be from people who wanted to read it in his trunk or under his pillow. He shook his head, as long as no-one knew he had one no-one would want to read it. It still didn't feel right to write such personal things into a book that anyone could find however. He went to put it down, when he noticed something sticking out of the back cover.

_You might find it easier to use a spell or charm on your journal so that it can be charmed so only you can read it. Place your wand on the cover of your journal and say "privartus." Now all you have to do is choose a password for yourself so that others cannot see the book. Be very careful because the next words that come of your mouth after this will be your password. After you have chosen your password, say "deprivatus" and it will be set._

The spell seemed pretty easy to Severus, but he could see how someone could stuff it up. He wanted to pick a password which was not easy to guess, but easy to remember. He decided to use a name, a name that no-one would ever think of.

"Privartus. Purtwin. Deprivatus."

Severus opened the diary to find that it was completely blank, even that pages that he'd just written across with his quill. He pointed his wand at the diary and said "Purtwin." The pages he had written in suddenly sprang to life, and the text was visible. Severus grinned, this would make writing in his journal a lot easier.

**0o0o0o0o0**

A lot of people seem to think that I need to be felt sorry for after what happened with my mum. I know that my father had been beating my mum for a long time, and that he had even stolen her wand off her so that she wouldn't be able to fight back. When he told me that he had killed her I wasn't very surprised, and it just made me realise how much I hated him. When he killed her he knew that he'd be in the frame so he fled Leithbridge and joined the Death Eaters, after forcing himself to learn magic for many years. My neighbour, Jasper Laskey, found my mum and sent a letter to me at Hogwarts telling me.

_At the funeral I was kidnapped by my father and later rescued by the Minister of Magic. After I went back to Hogwarts my father and all the Death Eaters went to Leithbridge and killed the neighbour who had stood in his way at the funeral, and always led to him being caught by the Ministry. Dumbledore later told me that in the battle Romulus and my father came face to face and Romulus beat him up bad, but he still got away. I'm really glad that he did that, although I wish it had been me that did it. _

_I wonder where my father is now and what the Death Eaters are plotting. I am awaiting school to start again because then Lucius, Rudolphus and all the others will come back and I can see If I can listen in on anymore of the plans the Death Eaters are plotting. I know that some of them have parents who are Death Eaters, and so they hear lots of information._

_One day I am going to get back at my father for what he has done to my mother and me. Sure it was bad enough that he had to torture us and ruin our lives, but killing my mother was the worst thing he could've ever done, and I will make him pay for it. I will get back at him if it is the last thing I do! I know that at this stage I am not physically strong enough to beat him in a duel, so I am learning the dark arts so that one day I will overcome him._

**0o0o0o0o0**

Professor Taylor knew that he could always rely on Dumbledore when it came to advice, and the man had never failed to disappoint him so far. He had a problem concerning Severus that he wondered how he could take care of, and he had invited Dumbledore into his office since he needed to tell him about his plans and would need the Headmaster's co-operation. The headmaster arrived exactly on time, and Professor Taylor offered him a seat. He wasted no time in getting to his explanation.

"I find it very difficult getting Severus to open up," said Professor Taylor, "and I believe that he is still dwelling on his mother's death. He didn't even get to farewell her properly because of his father interrupting the ceremony. If you would allow sir, I would like to speak to Severus one on one a couple of times and take him to his mother's grave."

Dumbledore took a while to take all this in, and then appeared to be thinking about it. Slowly, the aging Headmaster nodded at Professor Taylor.

"I trust that you know what you are doing, and warn you to tread carefully. I am aware that the boy trusts you very much and I do not want you to take his trust for granted, and please don't use it against him in any way, not that I'd suspect you of such a thing."

"Sounds more like something you would do!" Professor Taylor blurted out.

That particular remark had caught Dumbledore off guard, and the man looked down. It looked like Professor Taylor was ever likely to forget his first experience in the order in which the headmaster had taken him for granted. Dumbledore still felt guilty for how much control he'd had over Professor Taylor when he first met him, and he'd always hoped that the skilled Potions Master had forgiven him. It seemed that after all this time Romulus was still carrying around a small seed of anger towards the man.

"Romulus-" he began but the Potions Master cut him off.

"Look don't worry about it. It's ok," he said.

"Well if you're sure…" Dumbledore said, "Whenever you want to take Severus to his mother's grave is alright with me. Although might I suggest that you do it before the beginning of the term, as Severus has missed enough schooling as it is this year."

"I was considering tomorrow morning, unless of course you have any objections with that."

"No that should be fine." Dumbledore stood up to leave, but then turned around "Remember it would be best to tread carefully around this."

Dumbledore closed the door on his way out. Professor Taylor banged his fist on the table "Meddling old bastard!"

**0o0o0o0o0**

Professor Taylor sent a message to Severus via the house elves that he would be picking him up tomorrow morning around nine to take him out to somewhere special. He didn't want to tell him that he was going to his mother's grave yet, he felt that maybe it was better to take him by surprise. Since he was a member of the order, Dumbledore had no problem with him using an illegal portkey, as long as he was careful not to tell anyone.

The next morning Professor Taylor went to meet Severus in the Slytherin common room with the portkey, which was an old light bulb that had been charmed not to break, and when he saw that Severus was not in the common room he went up to the dorm and opened the door. Severus had been writing in something, and upon the door opening he'd yelped and thrown whatever that thing had been up in the air.

"Accio book."

The book soared into Professor Taylor's outstretched hands. Glancing at the front was all he needed to realise that it was a journal. Not wanting to pry however curious he might be, he shut it and passed it back to Severus, who was looking extremely flustered and grateful that he had not read it.

"Ready to go?" asked Professor Taylor.

Severus nodded, and got up to follow him. Professor Taylor showed him the unbreakable light bulb and told him it was a portkey, and to just put one finger on it. Severus did and the next second the two of them were transported to the graveyard, which took Severus completely by surprise. He glanced at Professor Taylor.

"Were we meant to come here?" he asked.

Professor Taylor looked down on him and nodded. "I'm taking you to visit your mother's grave Severus."

Severus's eyes widened, he turned around to run but Professor Taylor grabbed onto him so he couldn't.

"No…" Severus whispered.

"It's ok Severus," said Professor Taylor gently, "There is nothing wrong with going to visit the gravestone of your mother. I know how much you wanted her to have a peaceful funeral and the exact opposite of that happened, and I am sorry. She would have wanted you to visit her grave Severus."

"NO!"

Severus's outburst surprised him almost as much as it did Professor Taylor. The two of them were alone in a graveyard at nine o'clock in the morning, and Severus was grateful for that as he didn't want someone he didn't know around to witness what was about to happen. Severus couldn't fight back the tears any longer. All the emotions that he had been holding back since he heard about his mother dying came out. He collapsed to the ground, weak at the knees, and broke down.

"I let it all happen…I should have told someone…I shouldn't have gone to Hogwarts…left her alone with, with _him!_"

"No Severus," said Professor Taylor calmly, "You did exactly as your mother would've wanted you to do. She didn't want you to be stuck around her forever not growing up into the person you would want to be because you never attended school out of fear of her safety. There was nothing that you could've done anyway had you been at home, your father would've been able to overcome you as easily as he did her."

Professor Taylor stopped to let these words take effect. Severus raised his head from the soil of the ground.

"Why did you bring me here?" he asked.

"Because I wanted you to give your mother a proper farewell," she said, "and because I feel it is important for you to understand that this was not your fault in the slightest. Your mother would be proud of you Severus, not only did you manage to escape your father but also the amount of magic you have learnt since arriving at Hogwarts probably surpasses any other first year there. I would be surprised if any _fifth_ year could successfully cast the Cruciatus Curse, let alone a first year."

The next few seconds passed in silence. Severus stood up, and brushed himself off a bit.

"What's it called when you fear something for a stupid reason?" he asked.

"I believe those are called irrational fears," replied Professor Taylor.

"That's how I felt about coming to this graveyard after the funeral," Severus said, "I don't know why but for some reason the idea of being here scared me."

"You can be rest assured those are irrational fears," said Professor Taylor. Without a word the Professor led Severus to his mother's grave. The grave was near the entrance of the yard.

_Antoinette Gina Purtwin'_

Professor Taylor felt that it would be wrong to intrude on Severus's private moment right now. He turned around to wait a few feet away. Severus kneeled down next to the grave and ran his hand along the markings that stated how long his mother had lived. Once again, he broke down.

_Maybe in another life,_

_I could find you there._

_Pulled away before your time,_

_I can't deal it's so unfair._

_And it feels…_

_Yeah it feels like,_

_Heaven's so far away_

_And it feels…_

_Yeah it feels like,_

_The world has grown cold,_

_Now that you've gone away…_

_Leaving flowers on your grave,_

_To show that I still care,_

_But black roses and hail marys,_

_Can't bring back what's taken from me._

_I reach to the sky,_

_And call out your name,_

_And If I could trade,_

_I would._

_And it feels…_

_Yeah it feels like,_

_Heaven's so far away_

_And it stings…_

_Yeah it stings now,_

_The world is so cold,_

_Now that you've gone away…_

_I SAW YOUR SOUL, Whoah!_

_YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH YEAH!_

_I reach to the sky,_

_And call out your name._

_Oh please let me trade,_

_I WOULD!_

_And it feels..._

_And it feels like…_

_Heaven's so far away,_

_And it feels…_

_And it feels like…_

_The world is so cold,_

_Now that you've gone away._

**_GONE AWAY – THE OFFSPRING_**

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**A/N:** Putting that song in was a last minute idea, I was just listening to it when I was putting the finishing touches on this story when I thought that it fitted this chapter very well, so what the hell I decided to throw it in there. Anyone who likes the Offspring as much as me (a.k.a. no-one, no-one likes them as much as me) can find this song on their album Ixnay On The Hombre.

_Reviewers,_

_SnitchyPup – Appreciate it._

_Althalui – Sorry, you're the second reviewer dude. Ulysses is a name that I borrowed, but you might recognise Podmore as the last name of one of the current Order members in Book 5. _

_Iluska – Appreciate it. I came up with the idea of a journal because I felt then it'd be easier for me to publish what Severus was thinking and how he felt._

_EvilSnack – And how did you find that out exactly? Even if it is true it's a bit late to change that now unfortunately._


	20. Another Disturbsion

**CHAPTER TWENTY – ANOTHER DISTURBANCE**

Samuel Snape couldn't believe his luck. Here he'd been, coming to visit the grave of his dead wife, and who should he stumble upon other then his son Severus and the man that seemed to have adopted Severus as his own. This was his chance for revenge, he would take this man as a hostage of his own, torture him for a while and then bring him to Voldemort. He was sure that the Dark Lord would reward him gratefully for capturing a member of Dumbledore's Order Of The Phoenix.

Severus and the man were standing at the foot of Antoinette's grave. Severus collapsed to his knees and the man turned around and walked back a little to give Severus a private moment. Samuel ducked behind a gravestone. He pulled out his wand and crept towards the man. He decided to leave Severus for the time being, he had no interest in him yet and would kill him when his son was a little older. The man was unaware that Samuel was behind him, and the Death Eater took one more step so that he was close enough to stun him. He stepped on a twig.

The man whirled around and came face to face with Samuel Snape!

_He's here!_

"STUPEFY!" shouted Samuel.

The man's unconscious form fell to the ground. Severus heard the disturbance and he looked over his shoulder. He saw his father had Professor Taylor. He maddened at that.

"No! You've done enough damage, let him go and leave here!" he shouted at his father.

Samuel smirked at him, grabbed Professor Taylor, and double-apperated.

**0o0o0o0**

Dumbledore was sitting in his office, working on a letter to an old associate of his when out of the blue a telepathic message came to him.

_He's here!_

He recognised the magical signature that had sent it as Romulus's, and he didn't have time to react. With unbelievable speed for an old man, he ran down the stairs and ran to Hogsmede, not once stopping to catch his breath. He arrived in Hogsmede and apperated into to where Romulus had said he was taking Severus, to his mother's gravestone. When he got there he saw Severus was on his knees, in front of his mother's grave.

"Severus?"

He looked up. There was his headmaster, looking both concerned and worried. Severus was finding it hard to speak.

"He took him," he said, "My father."

Dumbledore knew at once what Severus meant. Samuel must've been in the graveyard at the same time and he had taken Romulus to score himself points with the Dark Lord, and the old Headmaster was sure he'd keep Romulus first for a while to torture him. But Dumbledore was not too down on this information. In fact, it seemed like all his prayers had been answered.

"This could be the solution to the problem that we've been looking for," said Dumbledore.

Severus looked up in surprise. "What?"

"Your father received minimal schooling Severus," replied Dumbledore, "He might've studied the Dark Arts since being expelled, but I'm sure that those Dark Arts books don't cover things such as wards and magical signatures. If I know your father, and I admit I don't but still I am a good judge of character, then I know that he will keep Romulus prisoner for a few days before he delivers him to Voldemort."

"Why is that good?" asked Severus, who had completely missed the point.

"Wherever Voldemort's hidden location is, there is a ward around it to stop people sensing out his location. I am willing to bet wherever Samuel keeps Romulus he won't have the same protection to stop us sensing magical signatures, so we can sense Romulus out and go and rescue him while taking Samuel into the custody of the Ministry. Romulus is a very powerful wizard, and he will not allow Samuel to try and block his magical signature."

"I still don't understand," said Severus, "What if my dad just takes him underground like he did to me when I was kidnapped?"

"It wouldn't matter. Professor Taylor is a master of telepathy and signature blocking. But while he can block his own he can also keep it open and make it stand out. The reason that Samuel was able to hide you so well was because you are inexperienced with mind control and he was able to block yours at the same time as his own."

The next few seconds passed in silence. Dumbledore sent a message to the rest of the Order telling them everything that had happened and Severus sat at his mother's grave, still wishing he could bring her back. Dumbledore sat down beside him.

"Did Romulus tell you the reason he brought you here?" Dumbledore asked.

Severus nodded. "He…he said something about…wanting me to give my mother a goodbye without interruptions."

"I'm sorry that yet again your father spoiled things Severus," Dumbledore told him, "But I am sure that when this has all died down we can fix things so that you finally get to say goodbye to your mother without interruptions and with no worries. You will have your time to farewell her Severus, just have a little patience my boy."

**0o0o0o0o0**

Samuel made sure that the door to the room where he was storing Professor Taylor couldn't be opened, and that there was a ward around the room to stop him Apparating, and then felt his arm burn. He lifted the sleeve of his robe a little. There was the dark mark, staring back at him. He smiled at it; the mark was his pride and joy. He apperated to the location of his Dark Lord. There he was, Lord Voldemort standing a circle of cloaked men. Samuel joined them in the circle. Voldemort let his hood fall, revealing his snake-like face and his seething red eyes.

"It seems that more and more people are waking up to the terror that is about to befall on this world," said Voldemort, staring at each of the Death Eaters individually, "Unfortunately no-one here has been doing quite a good a job at spreading the fear of my wrath as I would've liked. For that reason, for the next few months we are going to be randomly attacking various towns and cities, and now we have a secret weapon to help us along!"

There was a silence for a moment, then a female Death Eater spoke up, "My lord, we beg of you to tell us about this secret weapon."

There were murmurs of agreement among the rest of the Death Eaters. Voldemort raised one of his long eyebrows at the woman.

"Very well Katherine. I'm sure you are all aware of the legend of the Dementors. Although I'm sure that you would be less aware of the location of them. Well I've been searching for them for quite a while, and finally found them on an abandoned island in the middle of the ocean. I didn't find may of them, only around fifty to one hundred. But I'm sure there are more, and if it requires me to find more then I will head back to the island and search more."

Samuel decided to take a risk and speak, "My lord, what exactly are Dementors?"

Voldemort smirked at Samuel, "Your lack of knowledge in such areas makes you vulnerable in some areas Samuel, you will need to smarten up. _Curcio!_"

Samuel dropped to the ground, screaming in pain. He felt like his bones were snapping in his body. This was the first time he had been put under the Cruciatus Curse by Voldemort and it was the most back-wrenching pain he had ever felt in his lifetime. He rolled onto his back, and got a facefull of dirt. Voldemort smirked again, and lifted the curse off Samuel.

"Dementors are dark creates, so dark that even their _presence_ can suck every happy memory out of you. There were legends of them a long time ago, it is to believed that an ancestor of the original dark lord Grindelward was responsible for their creation, but somehow they were banished into another world, and that Grindelward freed them himself to help in the overthrow of Albus Dumbledore, however unsuccessful it proved. Obviously that fool Dumbledore was unable to banish them back to the world that they were previously trapped in, so he just tried to hide them. Well now we have them at our mercy!"

Samuel rolled onto his back, and attempted to stand up. Voldemort continued in his story.

"The Dementors thrive on the pain and sadness of others, and their presence can cause a lot of that in itself. Dementors also have a secret weapon, and that is the Dementors' Kiss. One kiss from a Dementor and your soul is sucked out of your body, leaving you worse then dead. It is the worst fate that someone can befall, and I have reserved this pain for none other then Albus Dumbledore himself!"

**0o0o0o0o0**

Dumbledore created a portkey and took Severus back to Hogwarts later that evening, then he called a member of the Order to his office to discuss the situation. Xavier Vulcan had to be the most experienced member in the Order other then Dumbledore, and Dumbledore trusted Xavier above them all. The man was in his forties and he was an expert at mind control, thus the reason he had passed his Auror exams with such high marks. Dumbledore now needed his help in mind control once again.

The door opened and in Xavier walked. As mentioned before the man was in his forties and he wore a black robe and cape that swished along behind him. His hair was a dark black and his appearance looked very powerful, Xavier looked like he meant business. He took a seat with Dumbledore, and allowed the man to offer him some tea.

Just as he was finishing his tea he felt something trying to penetrate his mind, something that was powerful and would give him a run for his money in a duel he was sure. He managed to push the force out and block his mind. Xavier looked across the desk, he knew that it'd been Dumbledore trying to gain access to his mind and while he did trust Dumbledore with every little thing the elderly man should've asked first. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"You still have perfected mind control I see," he said, "and that is the reason that I called you here instead of calling a meeting. For starters, would good would an Order meeting do now. We all know the situation, attempt to lock onto Romulus's signature and then move towards it. The reason I have called you here Xavier is to help you protect Severus."

Xavier raised an eyebrow, "Pardon me headmaster but I fail to see what I could do to protect Severus that requires me exceptionally."

Dumbledore's eyes continued to twinkle. He stood up and started pacing his office, "First of all I will need someone to fill in Potions lessons until Romulus is found and restored back to full health, and that's where you come in. I'm sure you have no objections, as I remember that you Xavier excelled quite highly in Potions."

Xavier nodded, unable to help feeling a little proud at the older man's comment.

"Severus's father is a dangerous man, and it would be wrong of us to rely on his education, or lack of it rather, to capture him. We cannot underestimate this man, he is already responsible for the murder of Severus's mother and the Auror that captured him, and I am almost certain he is the one who murdered Darcious Malfoy all those years ago. Samuel is not very powerful in mind control, that is one of his weaknesses and we have to exploit it, so I would like you to teach Severus all about mind control in case of an emergency in the future."

Xavier nodded, still thinking about this carefully. "You do not think that Severus is a bit young, and that maybe it would be better for him to start learning this stuff when he graduates into his third year at the very least."

Dumbledore chucked, the twinkle in his eye still twinkling away, "You misunderstood me old friend, while I would like Severus to learn how to penetrate a mind and block his own off those skills are far too advanced to begin practising yet. For now I just want him to be educated in what Occlumency and Legilimency _are_. That is all for now, when Severus is ready we shall practise it, but that may not come for a couple of years yet Xavier."

Xavier nodded, getting to his feet, "Well Albus, I shall require a timetable of the Potions classes that I shall need to teach. I will be returning tomorrow morning, but I have some loose ends that I must be tying up before I return to teach here. Until then good day to you."

Xavier exited the room. Dumbledore went back to sit behind desk, part glad that on being able to convince Xavier to take the job in Potions for a while, but he was also worried about how he had not been able to lock onto Romulus's signature yet. He hoped that they would find him…and soon.

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A/N:** Alright, this chapter was long in the making and I refused to update until I got at least three reviews, which some people have been forgetting lately. I've also been at the computer a lot less, and now I only usually do this at night. I've been outdoors a lot trying to loose a bit of weight that I gained over the holidays, so far to no success but I'm sure I'll find time to lose weight and work on this, although something tells me I'll slack off exercising again anyway.**

_Reviewers _

_Iluska – Glad you liked it. I put the song in after hearing on the radio when I was putting the finishing touches on that chapter, and it just seemed to fit really well._

_SnitchyPup – I read your fic, reckon it has some potential and I'll continue to check it for new chapters._

_JettaSnape – I've decided that I'd like Severus to keep the journal throughout the entire story, and as good an idea as that would be I don't think Voldemort will ever get his hands on the journal, thought this is still early stages of the story. _


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